Equestria Girls In Disguise: Rise Of The Toxibolts

Chapters

Detoxification
Split-up Personalities
Cleanliness and Friendliness
Fractured Autobots
Friendly Bonding
Toxicity
Sour and Sweet
Crushed Hope
Safehouse
Deadly Toxin
Rising Tension
High Hopes
Marked For Death

Detoxification

Author's Note

Another collab, more hijinks! :rainbowwild:

Detoxification

The Shadowbolts all sat around the lounge at Autobot HQ, quietly sitting on the couches as they fiddled with their phones, either checking the progress on their orders or trying to entertain themselves through the endless boredom that plagued their minds.

“Hey, girls?” Indigo was the one to break the silence. “Are you still mad that I did that prank on you today? Because I totally didn’t mean for any of it.”

“Indigo,” Sugarcoat huffed. “You almost got the Autobot base on camera for the world to see. That’s not a prank, it’s disclosing our secret hideout and giving the Decepticons a clean shot at us.”

“But, to be fair, Sugarcoat, you kinda had a hand in making it worse.” Sunny Flare twisted her wrist and rolled her eyes. “If it wasn’t for you trying to swipe Indigo’s phone, then we would’ve been able to solve that little dispute easier.”

“Sunny, you don’t talk your way out of problems at Crystal Prep. You actually have to take charge and clean up after someone’s misdemeanors,” said Sugarcoat. “The only reason why you didn’t contribute anything to this little debacle was because you were so focused on trying to find the right solution when it was clearly right in front of you.”

“Oh, so because I tried to fix a prank, that makes me the bad girl now?” Sunny cocked a brow. “Honestly, Sugarcoat, you need to get some therapy for that head of yours. Take some pills or get a psychiatrist or something.”

“I do have a psychiatrist, actually.” Sugarcoat lifted her finger. “One that helps me deal with the stress of all of your dysfunctions.”

“Then you need to fire that psychiatrist and get a better one.” Sour Sweet tipped her hand as she continued examining the pictures on her phone. “Like mine, for instance. If it wasn’t for her, then I probably wouldn’t have Smallfoot as a girlfriend.”

“How is that working out for you, anyway? Made it to third base yet?” Sugarcoat turned away. “Oh that’s right. You can’t. It’s impossible for a girl and a robot to get married.”

“First of all, Smallfoot’s a cyborg, not a robot. And two, you need to back off, Sugarcoat!” Sour got up from the couch and stomped up to Sugar’s face.

“It’s the truth, Sour.” Sugarcoat crossed her arms. “I’m not going to lie because I want to keep immersion, because that goes against every little piece of solid evidence laid on the table. It’s. Never. Gonna. Happen.”

“Why you…” Sour snarled and tightened her hand into a fist.

And just like that, the Shadowbolts all started arguing with each other in perfect sync. They slung verbal attack after attack, but neither side was willing to back down. The only one taking a backseat was Lemon Zest, who was casually jamming away on her headphones, the blaring noise of heavy metal drowning out whatever speech came from the others.

“Girls. May I have your attention please?” Wheeljack walked into the lounge but saw the Shadowbolts quarreling and shouting at each other, completely oblivious to his entrance. He slapped his face and pulled out a small blaster, firing shots at all five of the girls, which encapsulated them inside energon bubbles. “I said, may I have your attention please!”

“Oh, hey, Wheeljack.” Lemon Zest took her headphones off and smiled at him. “How’s it hangin’?”

“Good, but I’m afraid that I can’t really say the same about any of you.” Wheeljack held up a clipboard and flipped through the notes. “Over the past few weeks, your hostility’s been getting more and more erratic. It’s only a matter of time before one of you snaps and does something you’ll end up regretting.”

“Cut the scrap, Wheeljack.” Indigo crossed her arms. “What do you want from us?”

“Optimus Prime has ordered me to take you five away to my lab for a private de-toxification experiment.” Wheeljack’s mask opened up, revealing his nose and mouth. “Don’t worry. I’m not gonna cut into you or shove anything up your butts if that’s what you’re wondering. Just gonna stuff you inside a machine and drain some bad vibes out of you. That’s all.”

“What if we say no?” Sour Sweet tilted her head. “Because I need to give Sugarcoat a good piece of my mind right about now for insulting Smallfoot…”

“I’m afraid you’re not getting a choice in the matter, girls.” Wheeljack’s blaster fired five streams that connected to the bubbles and started dragging the girls out of the room. “You’re going to be de-toxified whether you like it or not.” He welded the blaster onto his back and transformed into vehicle mode. “Trust me, once this is over, you’ll be much nicer people.”

“Wait, can’t we talk about thi” —but before Sunny could finish, the five Shadowbolts were shot down the hallways, dragging right behind Wheeljack, who wasted no time in making it to his lab— “IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIS?”

Wheeljack jumped back into transformer mode and stopped outside his lab, feeling the girls’ bubbles crash into his back. He just took it on the chin and slowly walked into the room, pushing the girls in with him. He then shut the door and activated the lock, sealing the five of them in.

“Look, girls, let’s face the facts here: You’re not healthy people at all.” Wheeljack crossed his arms as his welding torch turned to his back and freed the blaster. “Optimus Prime gave me this order direct, and I’m not about to fail him now. You. Need. This. No exceptions, no escapes, and no excuses.”

“I knew I should’ve stayed in bed today…” Sugarcoat rubbed her temples as she watched Wheeljack walked towards a giant capsule with plush seats inside. It was almost like a steam room or sauna in a way, but with a more rounded design.

“Look, girls, I’m not gonna be one to fan any flames, but if this came from Optimus friggin Prime of all people, then we should just do the right thing and obey.” Lemon Zest took her headphones off and hung then over her arm. “We don’t want another ban like the last time…”

“Lemon Zest, I appreciate the effort, dearie, but I hardly think that Optimus would keep on kicking us out of the base for little mistakes like this.” Sunny Flare turned to Lemon and looked into her eyes.

“Yeah. He actually said that if any of you try and escape, you’ll be blacklisted from Autobot HQ.” Wheeljack floated the bubbles towards the machine.

Lemon’s eyes shrunk into tiny pinpricks as a fast smile covered her face. “Fire up the machine, Wheeljack! We’re good to go!” she giggled nervously.

Wheeljack put all of the girls’ bubbles directly over separate parts of the machine’s plush upholstery, then cut the bubbles and closed the hatch simultaneously, leaving the girls no time to react to anything as the device whirred into life.

“Y’know, Lemon, you’re a real kiss-up, right?” Indigo crossed her arms. “Don’t wanna get kicked out of the base because you’re worried you’ll be bored as heck without it.”

“Indy, we have to do this.” Lemon turned to Indigo and begged, making puppy-dog eyes as she stared into hers. “We don’t wanna get banned from Autobot HQ for life…”

“No, no! Don’t give me the puppy-eyes!” Indigo pleaded. “Anything but the puppy-eyes!”

“Too late, Indigo. It’s one of Zest’s best tricks.” Sour smirked. “Those eyes can end war if they wanted.”

“If they can end war easily, we could have just sent her by herself on the field.” Sugarcoat huffed.

“Looks like Wheeljack was right about one thing, Sugarcoat. You of all people needed this the most,” said Sunny Flare. “Now, just relax, close your eyes, and let everything get sucked out of your head.”

Suddenly, the machine began to rattle and shudder, like the girls were trapped in a washing machine that was about to start washing.

“Alright… let there be light!” Wheeljack screamed and mashed a giant red button on the machine.

Inside the machine, the girls all felt bolts of lightning strike them directly in the brains. It did hurt for the first moment, but eventually, the pain whittled down into something of a gentle massage as the energy coiled itself around the girls. The powerful streams of energy made the entire machine’s insides glow bright white, causing the shadows of the Shadowbolts to disappear off of their bodies and hang in the air, like black tar bubbles rising off of a pit.

Screams and roars could be heard as the black bubbles wiggled and tried to make bodies, but before they could even grow arms, they were sucked out of the machine through a tube at the top and drained into a large canister by the machine’s outside.

Wheeljack’s eyes drooped. “Oh my god, I killed them… I’m a terrible scientist, I should never be allowed to experiment on humans! Hound is going to kill me! ”

In a black plain of space, the black bubbles finally started to take shape. They grew slender arms and legs, almost like they were girl’s limbs. They had backs, toes, fingers, and heads as well. Once their bodies were complete, the black mass started to mold itself into black, gooey versions of the Shadowbolts, that dripped ooze from every corner of their new bodies. Before they could cover their private parts up, the black goo created clothes almost similar to that of the real Shadowbolts.

“Well, that was a disaster if ever I saw it,” said the black ooze that resembled Sugarcoat. “And what a waste of good machinery too. Wheeljack shouldn’t even be in HQ with a stunt like that.”

“You see everything as a disaster.” the ooze that resembled Indigo Zap.

“Oh, you’re right, Indigo. I do!” said the oozy Sunny Flare. “I’ve got bills to pay, I’ve got a cat to feed, my grades are gonna fall to pieces, and we’re all stuck who knows where!”

“Will you shut up, Sunny!? You’re giving me a headache!” an oozy Sour yelled.

The last bit of goo which resembled Lemon wasn’t that upset, but was instead just jamming out on her headphones, not even caring about anything around her.

“Ugh. I feel like I’ve just been dragged into a shitty spa mud bath and back out again.” Sugarcoat tried to shake the goo off but couldn’t do a thing about it. “Some de-toxification device, huh, Wheeljack…” Then, Toxic Sugarcoat’s eyes widened as the truth dawned on her. “De-toxification… Oh, shit!”

“What is it, Sugarcoat?” Toxic Sunny asked. “Please tell me you’re having a crisis too, that way, we can share the pain together!”

“That’s just it, Sunny! The machine didn’t blow up, we’re not dead, and we’re certainly not at Autobot HQ anymore!” Sugarcoat rounded up the bolts. “Don’t you get it, girls?! The black skins? The negative personalities? We’re the toxins! WE’RE WHAT GOT REMOVED!”

Wheeljack pulled a lever down, allowing the machines that contained the girls to open up. Soon, the five Crystal Prep girls exited out of the machines and in the open.

“So… are you girls are alright?” Wheeljack winced. “I hope you didn’t get hurt in there…”

“No, Wheeljack. In fact,” Sour ended up making a little chuckle. “We feel great. It’s like the best steam room I’ve ever been in!”

Wheeljack blinked. “Uh… is Sour usually this happy? The only time I’ve seen her this happy is when she’s with Smallfoot, but she’s not here right now.”

“Actually, I feel the same way too.” Indigo took a breath of air. “Man, it feels good to get the bad stuff out of your system, huh?”

“I agree, Indy!” said Lemon. “Hugsies!” And she pulled Indigo into a hug, who gave her one back.

“Indigo isn’t… pushing her away from a big hug?” Wheeljack tilted his head.

“So, what do you want us to do now, Wheeljack?” Sugarcoat smiled. “We could wash the base from top to bottom, or do some supply runs for Optimus and the crew. Oh! We could even help Sunset train the new recruits!” She practically bounced on the spot with excitement.

“No, no, you don’t need to wash the base, I promise!” Wheeljack said. “Well, uh… if you want to help train the new recruits, I guess you can, but do be careful. But don’t hurt yourselves, okay?”

“We will!” The Shadowbolts all smiled and walked out together.

“Huh…” Wheeljack watched the girls walk off and examine the black tube by the machine. He took it out and slid the lid shut before carrying it to an energon safe, where he securely sealed it up. “Don’t know what I’m gonna do with that. Maybe a movie at Canterlot Backlot could use some goo for a horror movie sometime…”

Split-up Personalities

The Shadowbolts all came into the training room and watched as Sunset and Optimus oversaw the recruits. Many different Autobots of all shapes and sizes were practicing their weapon accuracy, hand to hand combat, and surviving an assault course with their partner. They all observed each of the bots one at a time before they looked up to Sunset, who in turn, gazed down at the five of them.

“Hi, Sunset!” they all said in unison, smiling and waving at her.

“Hey, girls.” Sunset leapt off of the platform and landed before them. “You’re feeling pretty chipper today. Something good come in the mail?”

“Nope! We’ve just come out of the most incredible treatment we’ve ever had!” Sour Sweet clasped her hands together. “I feel so fuzzy and warm inside…”

“You should totally try it out, Sunset!” Lemon Zest’s smile got even bigger. “Wheeljack found a way to fix us up and now we’re super-duper good now. No more little fights over the silliest of things.”

“Good. It’s nice to know that you five are turning over some new leaves.” Sunset tousled the hairs of each and every one of them. “But what are you doing here, exactly? I thought you all weren’t interested in watching the others train.”

“That was the old us, Sunset.” Indigo walked up to her and patted her on the shoulder. “Now, we’re gonna try our hardest not to slack off, get in trouble, or do anything rash. Plus, I wanna see the bots’ new moves.”

“Well, I could use an extra set of eyes to see if there are any bots falling behind.” Sunset heard an explosion. “For god’s sake, Strongarm and Tracks! Why can’t you two get along?!”

“Sorry, Sunset! She just got in my way!” said Tracks, trying to climb out of the cluttered mess they had both made.

“You mean my way!” Strongarm snapped.

Sunset just groaned and shook her head. “You know if this was a real life situation and if Optimus and I were both held hostage right now… we would be dead.”

“Just try it again, you two.” Optimus folded his arms. “And remember. Work WITH your dysfunctions. What one bot lacks, the other can make up for.”

“How did Wasp and Road Rage do on this course?” Sunny asked.

“Those two got along perfectly, and they made it in record time.” Sunset replied, sighing. “Heck, we had to install a leaderboard just because of it.” Sunset pointed over to it, showing pairs of bots in a list ranking, with Wasp and Road Rage at the top.

“She’s gotten good, hasn’t she?” Sour asked, pointing to Road Rage’s score. “Hey, I bet if me and Smallfoot do it, we’d get a great time!”

“But Smallfoot’s already experienced, isn’t she?” Sunset asked.

“I meant for me too. I still need to practice y’know.” Sour replied. “Don’t wanna feel like I’m soft now that I’ve been cleaned up.”

“Anyway, I need to get back to overseeing the rest of the training.” Sunset walked up to a ladder and climbed her way up to the top. “You’re welcome to stay and help out if you want. Maybe see how some of the newer bots are getting along on the firing range?”

“We’d love to!” Indigo beamed. “C’mon, girls!”

They gleefully skipped over to the firing range, narrowly avoiding some debris that Strongarm and Tracks ended up making as they tried getting through another part of their course. The five bolts came up to a row of booths, with bots standing in each and every one, armed with blasters and other such cybertronian firearms. A few examples were Hot Shot, Trailbreaker, Pipes, and Arcee.

“Hey, everyone!” Lemon smiled. “How’s it going?”

“Hey, girls! Nice to see ya.” Hot Shot turned to the girls and gave Lemon a big hi-five. “Just in time, too. I’m about to thrash Arcee’s record on this thing…”

“Easy, Hot Shot. I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.” Arcee said, closing one eye as she focused her arm cannon down the range. The blast penetrated one target and struck the one behind it as well. “Like that one.” She blew the smoke coming off her barrel. “Top that, Armada-boy…”

Hot Shot huffed. “I’ll show you, Team Prime girl…”

“Hey, it doesn’t matter if you served in the Armada, the first war, or even the newer battles,” said Sugarcoat. “You’re all still Autobots. Brothers and sisters in arms. Don’t ever forget that.” She smiled.

Arcee and Hot Shot blinked for a moment.

“Since when did Sugarcoat give advice that was… nice?” Hot Shot asked.

“Since Wheeljack gave us that lovely little treatment back in his lab.” Sunny Flare nodded. “He’s such a sweetheart, isn’t he?”

“Uh…” Hot Shot said. “I’m a little creeped out right now.”

“Hey, uh, buddy? You’re gonna run out of time.” Jolt, Hot Shot’s Mini-Con, pointed out the time on the wall. Sure enough, it was ticking down fast, and Hot Shot was nowhere near beating Arcee’s score.

“Oh, scrap! C’mon, little buddy!” He took up Jolt and put his on his back, causing the Mini-Con to merge onto his body. “Let’s kick this into overdrive!”

“Just focus, buddy, you can beat that time.” Indigo called out.

Once Jolt transferred his power to Hot Shot, he was firing bullets one after another at rapid speed. Targets barely even materialized before he shot right in the bullseye. He was closing in fast on Arcee’s score, and she was trying as hard as she could to cement her win.

“Come on, Hot Shot! You got this!” Indigo cheered.

“Nearly there…” Hot Shot continued firing more and more shots, shooting a large cluster of targets in just under a second. It was almost as if he was fighting an army, but in truth, he was just standing still and shooting his blaster, albeit much faster than before. “We can do this, little guy…”

“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon…” Arcee desperately tried to get a better score, but Hot Shot was mere hundreds behind her. It was only a matter of time before he overtook her.

“You go, girl!” Lemon cheered.

Finally, the klaxon blared loudly, and the targets vanished. When both Bots looked at the scores, they were identical. It had ended in a draw, and Hot Shot had matched Arcee by the skin of his teeth.

“We… we tied.” said Hot Shot as Jolt jumped off of his back. “Man, that was pretty close, huh?”

“Yeah. You can say that again.” Arcee looked at her gun. It was almost like a cigarette coming out of her arm. “My blaster’s practically on fire.”

The Shadowbolts all cheered for both Arcee and Hot Shot, who both came out of the booths and shook each other’s hands, giving themselves grins of their own.

“You’re a pretty good shot, huh?” said Hot Shot.

“You too,” replied Arcee. “But doesn’t using a Mini-Con tire you out once you break the link?”

“Well… it used to, but I’ve gotten so used to Jolt here that I barely feel like stopping.” He picked Jolt up and patted his little head. “We’ve been through so much together. From all the Cons, to Megatron, even had to fight Tidal Wave together. Now that was a battle for the ages…”

“You fought Tidal Wave? Now that’s impressive.” Arcee's mouth hung open.

“Who’s Tidal Wave?” asked Sugarcoat.

“He’s probably the biggest, baddest, most destructive Decepticon ever!” Hot Shot threw his arms out. “He’s so huge, he makes Devastator, Menasor, and even Predaking look tiny!”

“If you’re wondering about his vehicle mode, Tidal Wave is an aircraft carrier when he’s not a Decepticon,” Jolt added.

“And you got to fight him…” Indigo sat down and crossed her legs. “Do you think you could tell us the story? It sounds great!”

“Maybe another time, Indigo, I’ve got some work to do. But I hope to see you girls later.” Hot Shot winked before leaving. “See ya round, girls.” He drove off in vehicle mode.

“Bye, Hot Shot!” the girls all chimed together.

Pipes and Trailbreaker just stood in awkward silence as they looked at the happy girls.

“...What just happened?” Pipes asked.

Meanwhile, in the blackened world, Toxic Sugarcoat was scrawling notes on the ground while the other Toxibolts just stood there in silence, watching as she worked. There were echoes that rang out through the void, with even the tiniest of foot taps reverbating through the air.

“Oh, for fuck’s sake, Sugarcoat! How long is it gonna take?!” Toxic Sour shouted. “I’ve got a lot of things to say to my emotional bitch of a girlfriend!”

“Just give me some time, alright?! It’s a pretty complex formula I’m working on here!” Sugarcoat lurched back at her. “Just shut up and sit down. Don’t think I don’t know how to kick your ass from here to Timbuktu!”

“Why can’t we just smash the place up?” Toxic Indigo asked. “Aren’t we just in some kinda weird test-tubey thing? There’s gotta be something we can smash…”

“It’s not that easy, Indigo.” Toxic Sugarcoat continued working. “Wherever we are, it doesn’t seem like something that can just be punched or kicked into pieces. That Wheeljack is a crafty little devil. He’ll probably have this whole place under lock and key by now…”

“So, we’re trapped in here forever,” said Toxic Sunny Flare. “That’s just great! Goodbye, college! Goodbye, marriage! Goodbye, whatever remained of a normal life!”

“Sunny, stop being such a whiny little bitch and let me work!” Toxic Sugar snarled. “You might be a negative Sunny Flare, but that doesn’t mean you can be as irritating as her.”

Sunny just sat there in silence, almost bumping into Toxic Lemon, who was still drowned in her own little world of music.

“Carry the two, calculate the velocity of ooze and pinpoint the latitude and splatter graph of where it’ll land…” Toxic Sugarcoat mumbled to herself. “Identify the square root of this negative mass…”

Toxic Sour Sweet only groaned some more. “I can’t stand it anymore! I’ve got talk to that bitch!”

“Why are you so mad anyway?” Toxic Sunny Flare asked.

“Ugh! I’ve been patient for so long, and I want to take things to the next level, but that emotional piece of shit isn’t showing me any sign she even wants to... “ Sour just whispered in Sunny’s ear, making her cringe in disgust.

“Why did you tell me that!? I didn’t want to know that!”

“My point is, that bitch is going down!”

“Now, if my calculations are correct, then that means that…” Toxic Sugarcoat picked up a lump of her ooze and hurled it straight up towards something that resembled an eclipse. Her throw was so powerful that the gunge splatted right on the ceiling and burned through the lock. “We’ve got ourselves a way out of this shithole…”

“Finally!” Toxic Indigo yelled.

“There’s one more thing I need to do, make sure that we can all make the travel.” Toxic Sugarcoat reached down and grabbed massive balls of the black toxin, rubbing them all over her back. She did the same with the other girls as well.

The mass mutated on each of the girls’ backs into a pair of black wings. Two for each of them. Each individual feather was laden with the gunk, and even it dripped as the girls fluttered them in the black darkness. Now, they could all fly, and had a way to get out of Wheeljack’s trap.

“Now, let’s get out of here!” Toxic Sugarcoat shot off the ground and darted to the open hole. “Are you gonna follow me, or stay here in the pits with the rest of your miserable lives?!”

“Oh, we’re coming!” Toxic Sour dashed through the air right behind Toxic Sugarcoat. Close behind her were the other bolts. Toxic Lemon was almost completely left behind, if not for Toxic Indigo picking her up and slinging her across her back

The goo in the vial burst out of the lid, filling the energon safe up with the black mass. Wheeljack was so busy working on his next device that he didn’t see the ink-like substance leaking out of his safe. As soon as he turned his head back to the vault, it burst open, coating the floor in the black mess.

“Whoa!” Wheeljack jumped backwards. “What the heck happened?!”

The Toxibolts all rose from the black swamp of slime, causing the flood of ink to retract and reform their bodies. The mess was all cleaned up from the floor, but in its’ place, were five blackened, seething, and dripping humans.

“Uh… who are you five?”

“We’re the last thing you’ll ever see.” Toxic Sugarcoat crossed her arms. “Prepare to die, you piece of scrap!” And she rushed towards Wheeljack, kicking him in the face. It was such a strong attack, that he smashed into the wall, leaving a massive dent.

Wheeljack slid down on the ground, and his optics shut down as he went into stasis, knocked out.

“Say goodnight, you old mess…” Toxic Sugarcoat spread her ooze all over his body, drenching him in the black liquid. He eventually rose from the floor, but his eyes were all red, and his Autobot symbol had been transformed into that of a black ink mark that was neither Autobot or Decepticon. It instead showed a black flame with shadows bursting out in all directions.

“Optimus Prime is going to pay for all the times he rejected my inventions…” Toxic Wheeljack cracked his fingers. “I’ll make him suffer so much, he’ll be begging for Megatron to put him out of his misery!”

“Oh YEAH!!!” Toxic Sour roared, pounding her chest like an ape.

“Thought you could run from us, you stupid other halves?” Toxic Sugarcoat watched Toxic Wheeljack drive off out of the lab, towards the training room. “Think again. You’ve held us back for far too long. It’s time we finally let loose and have some fun for once…”

Back in the training room, the Shadowbolts and Sunset all watched the recruits gather up, for it was time for Optimus Prime to make an announcement.

“Everyone, I want to congratulate you all on doing another good job on the training course. I see you all are getting stronger every day. Keep up the good work, and you will be great Autobots, should Starscream and his army return.” Optimus said.

“But I think you’ve all still got a lot of work to do,” added Sunset Shimmer. “You’re all showing great progress now, but the Decepticons will be getting better too. So for now, just work harder and harder every single day, and I’m sure that you’ll be able to mop ‘em all up in no time.”

Everyone let out agreeing nods.

“You are all dismissed.” Optimus said before leaving.

Each of the bots filed out one after another, but Strongarm and Tracks were the last ones. They both tried to leave together, but they couldn’t fit through the doors and just ended up trying to shove each other out of the way.

“Hey. What’s going on?” Indigo asked, leaping off the platform towards Strongarm and Tracks.

“Can’t you two go one at a time?” Lemon asked. “Smallfoot and Hound learned that the hard way.”

“I refuse to let some girl leave before I, Tracks.” He puffed out his chest. “Now, move out of the way, Strongarm!”

“No way, bud!” Strongarm retorted. “You’ve still got a lot to learn and I’ve been doing this longer than you! Check your privileges!”

Sunset sighed. “Not again… Five minutes, can we go five minutes without those two fighting?”

“Don’t you get involved in this, Sunset Shimmer,” Tracks said. “It’s bad enough I have to deal with this girl. Don’t make me get angry with you too…”

“Both of you, that’s enough.” Sugarcoat sternly said. “Now, come on over here, let's sort this out.”

“Why are you even fighting anyway?” Sour tilted her head. “Aren’t you supposed to be Autobots?”

“Someone seems to forget that we’ve only been here for six months!” Strongarm snapped.

“Yeah, but you’re just like we were. You’re just letting yourself get angry over the tiniest little things,” Indigo said. “Just calm down, take a few steps back, and try and think what is it about yourselves that the other side can’t stand, then try your hardest to just not show that part.”

“You shouldn’t let in-fighting destroy yourselves.” Sugarcoat nodded. “You’re the Autobots, not the Decepticons. Anger’s just gonna make you do worse and worse. Just try and breathe, think about what makes you happy, and work on that. It’s better to fight the enemy than to fight yourselves.”

Strongarm and Tracks both stopped for a moment and they carefully pulled themselves out of the door, taking deep breaths. As they looked each other in the eye, it seemed like what Sugarcoat was saying was true. They both had the Autobot symbol on their bodies, but they were arguing with themselves rather than working as a joint unit.

“United we stand, divided we fall,” Sugarcoat added. “Win together, or lose alone. That’s what the Autobots are about, isn’t it?”

Sunset blinked and she gave a smirk. “When did you get so wise all of a sudden?”

“Well, it’s like we said.” Sour smiled. “Wheeljack did this little experiment on us and made us all super-nice. You should try it out too, Sunset. Those cognative toxins are pretty bad for you.”

“We’d take you to the lab, but just look at the time.” Indigo looked down at her phone. “It’s almost time for class again. We’d better get going, girls. Don’t want Cadence to give us a bad mark for being tardy.”

“Let's go!” Sour said, opening up a mini-groundbridge.

“Bye, everyone!” the Shadowbolts all chimed before running through the portal with giddy grins on their faces.

Sunset, Strongarm and Tracks all tilted their heads in confusion.

“You know… this kind of scares me.” Strongarm commented.

Just as the portal closed, an alarm blared out throughout the base.

“INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!” Teletraan-1 declared. “UNKNOWN BLACK ORGANISMS HAVE INVADED THE BASE! INITIATING FULL DEFENSE MATRIX!”

“Scrap! Get going guys!” Sunset said as she ran through the doors.

But before any of them could get out, Optimus Prime was hit by a car that drove his body into a wall. Toxic Wheeljack jumped out of vehicle mode and stood atop Optimus, ready to finish him off.

“Optimus!” Sunset cried out.

“You’re dead, old man!” Toxic Wheeljack was about to punch Optimus in the face, but Optimus kicked him in the chest, knocking him to the floor.

“What the… Wheeljack?!” Sunset watched in horror as the blackened scientist rose to his goopy feet and glared at Optimus with seething red eyes. “Are the Shadowbots back? Is this what this is?”

“No, but I suppose your guess isn’t that bad.” Toxic Sugarcoat said from behind her. “But it’s still far from the truth and you’re an idiot for guessing it.”

Sunset gulped. “S-Sugarcoat? What happened to you!? Wait, why did you come back?”

“Don’t get me mixed up with that ooey-gooey other half.” Toxic Sugarcoat cracked her neck. “All those sunshine and smiles as she tries using honesty to help others out. Pah! She’s weak. And once I’m done here, I’m gonna find that goody-two-shoes Sugarcoat and leave her to rot in that toxic hell! Then, we’ll do the same with all of your pathetic friends until there’s nothing but toxicity in this wretched world!”

Toxic Indigo Zap stepped over and she glared down at Sunset who looked panicked.

“What do we do with her?” Toxic Indigo asked. “Lock her in the brig?”

“You’ll do nothing!”

A bunch of other Autobots stood by the door and pointed their blasters at the Toxibolts.

“GAH!” Toxic Wheeljack just charged at Optimus and tried to punch him, but he turned into vehicle mode and struck right back. “Just give in to the ooze, you old fart! Become evil like we are, and let your true fighter out!” His hand morphed into a demonic sword. “Or we’ll just have to leave you to bleed, rotting your energon from the inside out!”

Everyone opened fire and wasted no time in turning the Toxibolts into a gooey mess. The five toxic teens just made snake-like hisses and disappeared into the goo, draining themselves down through the nearest drain. Once they were gone, the Autobots all opened fire on Wheeljack, who also became a black puddle and vanished down the grates and into the sewers below.

“Seal the drains up!” Optimus shouted. “Don’t let them get anywhere near the base ever again!”

“Does that include—”

“Yes, Grimlock, that includes the toilets as well.” Optimus groaned as he felt the pain catch up to him. “We can’t allow those… things to come back. Who knows what could happen?”

“The Shadowbolts just left, though. We saw the groundbridge and everything.” Sunset watched the black goo continue to slip down the grates. “And then Wheeljack turns into this black monster and attacked Optimus. Something’s not right here... I’d better get the other Rainbooms. We might need our new powers if we’re gonna stop these things.”

“Are you alright, Optimus?” asked Grimlock as the other bots came in to assess their leader’s wounds. “Me Grimlock thinks that you took a serious beatdown…”

“I’ll be fine, Grimlock,” Optimus tried standing up, but he groaned in agony as he just limped across the room. “Just get Red Alert to patch me up and I should be fine. In the meantime, you’d all better seal up the drains. The black creatures could come in through any tap, shower, or even toilet. And we don’t want another attack like this.”

“Teletraan-1. How many drains are there here in Autobot HQ?” Sunset asked.

“There are ove—BLLZZZ, ERGG…“ His voice cut in and out of reality, being replaced by static. “Apologies. My syste—noranaw=e0fk3wirn02—were damaged by those beinoae;n03q0832NOUN—when they burst out of Wheeljack’s lab. Initiating systematic reboot. I will be back online in a few hours.”

“What have you unleashed, Wheeljack?” Sunset asked as the bots all darted out of the training room.

Author's Note

Things are about to get worse...

Cleanliness and Friendliness

Author's Note

Happy fluff! :rainbowwild:

Cleanliness and Friendliness

The Shadowbolts all smiled as they walked through CPA’s crystalline corridors. Every one of them had a spring in their step as they waved at everyone else, who was just taken aback by their sudden change in behaviour.

“Hi, Frosty! Hi, Ginger!” Lemon Zest waved at a couple of CPA students who just stared at her. She just quickly went to some others. “Ooh! Diwata, is that a new bass? Nice.”

“Why doesn’t Lemon Zest have her headphones on?” One of the students whispered. “She should be jamming out right about now…”

“And why does she seem more upbeat than usual?” said another. “It’s not like her to be this bubbly, especially when she knows a lesson’s about to start.”

“You think that’s weird? I saw Sugarcoat and Sour Sweet doing the same thing earlier,” another student began gossiping. “Neither of them seemed angry or bored out of their wits either. They were just happy to see us. Why, though?”

“You think they’re high?” Another student asked.

“No, I think even Principal Cadence would have figured that out.”

“None of us are on drugs.” Sugarcoat happily replied. “We’re just in a good mood today, that’s all.”

The students just stared dumbfounded. They never saw Sugarcoat smile. Not once.

“Now, who can correctly identify the fourth state of elemental matter?” the teacher asked.

Sunny Flare raised her hand. “Is it Plasma?”

“Yes, Sunny. You are correct.” And he began to write on the blackboard. “Now, what name does plasma commonly go by?” He turned to the class and saw Lemon’s arm shoot straight up. “Yes, Lemon Zest?”

“Lightning, sir!” she said. “It’s created when hydrogen and oxygen molecules are ionized.”

He just stood and stared for a few seconds. “That’s… actually right, Lemon Zest. I just didn’t expect you to know that.”

“Oh, I’ve been studying extra-hard, sir.” Lemon nodded. “That lovely little treatment I had worked wonders on me…”

“Um… well alright then.” The teacher shrugged, continuing the lesson.

Everyone was left dumbfounded. Lemon usually never paid attention in class. She’d have her headset on her head and she’d be rocking out right about now. But she wasn’t… her headset was hanging around her neck, and she was actually answering questions that the teacher had asked.

This was a day no-one else had expected and it had barely even begun.

At lunch, the five Shadowbolts all sat together smiling and talking to one another, slinging compliments back and forth like it was a game of tennis. Not one of them had said anything bad about themselves or their peers and they were drawing a lot of stares from the crowd of students.

“Okay, uh… are you girls sure you’re alright? No one has ever seen you this happy.” A student asked with black spiked hair and sunglasses. “Did you pull a prank on CHS again?”

“Nuh-uh. In fact, you could say we’re not even the same people anymore,” said Indigo innocently.

“No kidding!” Another voice said. “This is like… the exact opposite of you. Since when do you give people hugs? You’re not exactly the huggy, type, per say.”

“Since Wheeljack did that lovely little treatment on us. Speaking of which, Indy, do you want some hugsies?” Lemon asked.

“Sure, Lemon!” Indigo came over and wrapped her arms around Lemon’s body. “I love your hugsies…”

Everyone could only blink and stare in total silence at them.

“Oh, before I forget, Sour, are you planning on doing something special with Smallfoot later today? If not, maybe we could hang out later. I know there’s a new movie playing at the Drive-In Lot.” Sugarcoat asked.

“That’s very sweet of you to offer, but me and Smallfoot have something planned after school today.” Sour Sweet chuckled with her hand over her mouth. “I hope she likes the surprise I have for her…”

One of the students behind them whispered into another student’s ear.

“How much you want to bet her girlfriend is gonna freak out to find this?”

“Ten bucks says she finds it weird,” said another.

“Make that twenty and Smallfoot and Sour fight.” Another student chimed in.

But Sour didn’t listen to the students and returned to the Shadowbolts. “So, do any of you have anything special planned with your guardians?”

“Well I don’t have anything outside of going to the Drive In with the rest of the girls. I bet Hound’s gonna love what they’ve got playing. Its got everything he likes in a movie. Action, excitement, adventure...” Indigo grinned.

“I was actually going to volunteer at the homeless shelter tonight.” Sunny Flare smiled. “I’m sure Outback would appreciate the time I give to help those who can’t help themselves.”

“Okay, now this is really weird…” Fleur De Lis whispered. “Sunny Flare never works at the shelter for anything! She’s always turned off by how dirty the place is…”

“Wheeljack? What did you do to the girls? And how can we sign up for it?” another one spoke silently.

“What about you, Sugarcoat?” Sour asked. “Do you have anything special planned with your guardian?”

“Well, I was planning on fixing his wounds after a bit of a crash, and then later I might take him out to see the movie with Indigo and Hound.” Sugarcoat replied. “I still wonder how I’m going to get a double bladed helicopter into the movie lot though…”

“Oh, I’m sure you’ll be fine, Sugarcoat,” grinned Lemon. “You and Highbrow were practically made for each other!”

“Thanks, Lemon,” Sugarcoat grinned. “You always know how to brighten up our day.” And she tousled her hair gently.

“By the way, what do you have planned with Blaster, Lemon?” Indigo asked. “I bet it’s gonna be pretty good, knowing you two.”

“I think I’m gonna take Blaster and his cassettes down to the movie too. I can’t really think of anything we’ve got going right now that’s important…” Lemon scratched her chin.

“I’m sure we’ll all have a great time tonight.” Sour nodded. “After all, we’re better people now. We can have fun whenever we want without any silly schedule or personality conflicts.”

“I know, right? This is awesome!” Indigo said. “We’re like, the best of friends!”

That one line got EVERY other CPA student in the hall deep in discussion with their peers. They knew that things had been weird for them since the start, but now the Shadowbolts had outright announced that they were besties now. It was like their whole world had turned upside down.

“What do you say, girls? A toast to friendship?” Lemon held up her drink.

“I agree!” Sugarcoat raised her drink up.

“Besties!” They all toasted and tapped the rims of their drinks together.

All of them drank from their cups and then set them down on the coffee table.

At gym class, everyone was working hard on CPA’s apparatus. They tried climbing a single rope dangling from the ceiling, beating a team’s best time on the relay course, and tried their hand at some advanced gymnastics moves above a deep pit.

Lemon and Indigo were working as hard as the rest of the group. It was the one and only time when all eyes weren’t on them. Instead, the group’s attention had shifted to Sugarcoat, who was dressed in appropriate gym attire for the first time in her life.

In the past, she would always try to engross herself in books instead of interact with the other students in gym class, as she had been home tutored on physical fitness. But now that she had been cleaned of her cognitive toxins, she was finally working out with the rest of the students.

“Since when did Sugarcoat work out this hard?” One of the students asked himself. “She’s practically dripping with sweat!”

“Yeah. I mean, I thought Indigo and Lemon hugging was the weirdest thing I’ve seen today, but this just takes the cake…” said another bystander.

“C’mon, guys!” Indigo rubbed her hands together. “Let’s keep up the pace! Don’t wanna seem like we’re getting slower!”

“Let’s go!” Lemon started running faster, not even fazed by how hard she was sweating or what strain it put on her body.

Everyone kept on running around the track that had been set up inside the gym, and no one was stopping. The girls were farther ahead than everyone else. Including Sugarcoat of all people!

“She’s pretty fast!” one of the students remarked. “Was Sugarcoat always this good at sports?”

“Man, you’re pretty fast, girl.” Indigo picked up the pace.

“I didn’t know you had that in ya!” Lemon said as Sugarcoat raced ahead of them.

“What can I say? I’ve been working out.” Sugarcoat smirked and darted across the line. “Either that, or maybe you two are falling behind.”

“No way, girl. We’re always up for a race.” Indigo skidded across the line with Lemon close behind her.

“Alright. How about ten more laps, then?” Sugarcoat grinned.

“It’s on, Sugarcoat!” Indigo smirked and lined up at the start of the course again with Lemon and Sugarcoat beside her.

“They’re going to wear each other out if they try to do that!” Sour said.

“Don’t worry… they’ll slow down soon enough.” Sunny said back. “They’re looking pretty tired out from up here.”

Eventually the two of them did become tired out and they started to slow down, large amounts of sweat built up on their foreheads as their breathing got heavier and heavier. Almost slowed down to a crawl, they still finished the race, desperately slamming their hands on the line in perfect sync with each other.

Everyone was shocked, but at the same time very impressed. They gave compliments to the two of them while they just kept on happy faces to the rest of their classmates and friends.

“Man, you three worked extra hard today.” The gym teacher stood over the bodies of Sugarcoat, Lemon Zest, and Indigo. He felt each of their heads, which were almost made out of the sweat they had been burning off. “I think you three earned a quick trip to the showers. But take it easy, okay?”

“We will, Cal.” Sugarcoat got up to her feet. Her hair was completely drenched and drooping behind her back.

As Sugarcoat, Indigo, and Lemon all made their way to the showers, Sour Sweet and Sunny Flare followed closely behind them, talking about how tight a race it was and how far the three of them went before tiring themselves out.

Eventually, the day’s end came, and each of the Shadowbolts’ guardians stood out by the door.

“So… is anyone else going to the movie later today? It’s Friday, after all.” Hound asked.

Highbrow didn’t look at any of them, he was too focused on the pain coming from his left leg.

“Sorry we couldn’t be here any earlier. There was just a mess we had to clean up back at base first,” said Smallfoot. “Nothing much, really. Optimus just said we had to seal up all the drains.”

“He didn’t say anything else, though. Which is weird…” Blaster scratched his chin. “Optimus isn’t one to skimp on details. He just said everyone should plug up all the bases’ drains and that’s it.”

“Oh, I’m sure everything’s fine.” Sour Sweet came up to Smallfoot and grinned at her. “I mean, it’s nothing you can’t handle, right?”

Smallfoot looked down to her girl and smiled back. “Hey baby. How was school?”

“It was wonderful!” Sour smiled.

Smallfoot paused for a moment and raised a brow. “Really? There was… nothing wrong?”

“Nope! Not a single one.” She beamed.

“No one made any sexual comments at you, no lesbian jokes, innuendos… nothing?”

“If anything, everyone was just staring at us the whole day,” said Indigo. “Don’t know why, though. We’re all perfectly normal people.”

“I’m sure it’s just a phase. They’ll stop sooner or later,” Hound grinned. “And if they don’t, they’ll have me to answer to…”

“We know, Hound, we’ve heard your battle roar every time.” Outback said.

Sugarcoat stared up at Highbrow’s wounds and frowned. “Are you okay? What happened?” She asked.

Highbrow jolted his head up and looked down at Sugarcoat’s warm expression which reflected off his visor.

“Wait… you’re asking me if I’m okay? You never once asked if I was okay.”

“It does look like a pretty bad cut, Highbrow…” Sugarcoat rubbed the back of her hand over the crevasse. “The old me wouldn’t’ve cared much, but this seems pretty bad; even for you. Not many vehicles on this planet have your parts these days…”

Highbrow only winced some more as he tried to move his leg.

“How did you even get hurt?” Sugarcoat asked.

Highbrow’s face drooped. “Um… are you sure you want to know? It’s a little… embarrassing.”

“It won’t be, Highbrow,” she said. “Just tell me.”

“Well…”

Highbrow explained everything about the incident that had occured, and each of the Bolts had equally shared concerns. The only ones who didn’t looked concerned were Hound, Blaster, and Outback who were trying not to snicker.

“So… you flew over a farm… a crazy old guy thought you were a spaceship and tried to shoot you, and the minute you tried to land, you crashed right into a farmhouse?”

“Yeah, not really one of my best moments…” Highbrow rubbed the back of his head. “Still, I’m glad you feel concerned, Sugarcoat. But I must say it’s not like you to show it. You usually just assess the damage, say what’s right for me, and just move on.”

“Well, not this time. Let's find you a place where I can fix you up, then we can go to the movies with Indigo and Lemon.”

“Aw, yeah! We’re gonna have such a great time at the movies!” Indigo fist-pumped. “Are you guys excited?”

“I am!” Blaster said, making a rock and roll sign with his fingers.

“Let’s get going! I’m sure we can find some great spaces!” Lemon climbed up Blaster’s body. “We’ll see you there, Sugarcoat!”

“Alright. See you there, you two!” Sugarcoat waved Lemon and Blaster off as they ran into the distance.

“We’d better get a move on too.” Hound transformed into a car and allowed Indigo to climb into the passenger’s seat. “Hold on, Indy. This is gonna be a sweet ride!”

“See ya, girls!” Indigo buckled herself in and sat back as Hound shot down the road as fast as he could.

“Bye, Indigo!” Sour, Sunny, and Sugarcoat waved Indigo off and grinned back at their guardians.

“So, Sunny, shall we get going?” Outback asked.

“Yes, Outback. We’ve got a lot of people to help out.” Sunny nodded and climbed up onto his shoulders. “Then after that, we can go and get a lovely dinner together. Won’t that be great?”

“I wouldn’t mind a good bite after this.” Outback nodded as he walked off with Sunny riding him. “What do you recommend?”

“Well, I know this great place that just opened up that does the most amazing food. We’ve got to try it out…” the conversation trailed off into the distance as Sunny gently kicked her legs.

“We should go too.” Sugarcoat held Highbrow’s hand. “We don’t want this injury of yours to get any worse. You could end up frying the servos in your legs.”

“And that’d be a nightmare…” Highbrow limped off with Sugarcoat.

Now, there was only Smallfoot and Sour Sweet, who just stared at each other with grins on their faces.

“So, what do you have planned, Sour?” Smallfoot kneeled down to her height. “Anything big?”

“Well, I figured that maybe it’s time we take a walk on the wilder side.” Sour pulled out a leaflet. “I got this discount for a little nature walk through a bio-dome that I think you’ll love! It’s got all the most endangered wildlife and a wide collection of butterflies too! Nothing but the best for my big rig…”

“Al...right?” Smallfoot just blinked at her. “That’s… nice of you, Sour.”

“I know. But you’ve done so much for me, so I figured that maybe it’s time that I do something for you instead.” Sour climbed onto her body as well. “Plus, you do like nature, right?”

“Well, it’s what it says in my character description.” Smallfoot nodded, but then glanced over to Sour Sweet. “But… I just want to ask you something first.”

“What is it?” Sour asked.

“You’re seeming much more peppy than usual. In fact, I don’t think I’ve seen you huff or groan or get angry at least once since you came out the doors.” Smallfoot lifted a brow. “What’s happening now?”

“Well… let’s just say that this time, Wheeljack’s experiment wasn’t a total bust after all,” said Sour. “In fact, I’d say it was one of his best yet!”

“Wheeljack?” Smallfoot’s eyes just blinked rapidly. Then she groaned and rubbed her hand down her face. “What’s he done now?”

“Oh, just the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen!” Sour Sweet. “His little sauna managed to make us all super-duper friendly!”

“That… actually doesn’t sound that bad, to be honest.” Smallfoot scratched her chin. “And judging from you and the others, it seems to have worked.”

“Yeah. Now we can enjoy our relationship even more, sweetie.” Sour Sweet tenderly rubbed Smallfoot’s cheeks. “Now, we don’t have to worry about all those little things like bills or arguments or anything like that. We have each other and that’s all we could ever ask for…”

“Alright, Casanova. Don’t get too into it.” Smallfoot smirked.

“Oh, don’t worry about it, honey. I won’t go too far.” Sour just giggled again.

As Smallfoot and Sour Sweet went off into the sinking sun, Toxic Sour Sweet stood on top of Crystal Prep’s flagpole, scowling as they rode off together. The black-ooze teen just snarled and tightened her hands into fists as she leapt into the air, turned into a small ball of black toxin mass and launched herself into the sewers.

Fractured Autobots

“Sweet mother of goddess…” Applejack’s jaw hung wide open as she witnessed the destruction that had swept the Autobot HQ. Faint traces of black sludge dripped across the walls and Teletraan-1’s central computer screen was still static and fizzling from the attack. “What in tarnation happened here, Sunset?!”

“Uh, a bit of a long story.” Sunset replied. “Let's just say, I think maybe trying to remove all of the bad stuff from our Crystal Prep friends wasn’t such a good idea. Now we’ve got oily Shadowbolts and Wheeljack roaming around who knows where.”

“I dunno… this doesn’t really look like real oil to me.” Pinkie squinted her eyes as she examined the splodges of toxin on the walls. She scraped some of it onto her finger and brought it close to her mouth. “But, there’s only one way to find out.”

“Pinkie!” Rarity grabbed Pinkie’s hand and held it high to the sky. Before the pink teenager could do anything about it, Rarity had already whipped out a handkerchief with a purple ‘R’ stitched onto the corner and wiped the mess away.

“The damage was so bad that Teletraan-1’s still powered down and rebooting himself, Optimus Prime is being tended to by Red Alert in the medbay, and those black creatures are probably causing chaos out in Canterlot as we speak.” Sunset Shimmer grimaced at how the central screen still fizzled as a progress bar faintly showed how close the supercomputer was to coming back online.

“Well, that’s all I need to hear.” Rainbow Dash clutched the geode around her neck tightly. “Let’s give these black monsters a real butt-kicking, girls.”

“Uh, just as soon as we find them, that is…” Fluttershy whispered.

“Normally, I would leave this to the hands of the Autobots, but we know that these black creatures can shapeshift, take control of other lifeforms, and turn into puddles of goo that can’t be hurt by anything, so you’re the best bet I have, girls.” Sunset Shimmer slid her hand across the wall, narrowly avoiding some of the residue left over by the Toxibolts. “If I send other Autobots out to fight it, then they could end up like Wheeljack. And we don’t want another giant Autobot dripping that black poison everywhere.”

“Look, Sunset, maybe we should head to Wheeljack’s lab. See if there’s a clue in there or something that’ll help us understand this better.” Twilight lifted a finger. “If we can figure out what this goo is made out of, then maybe we can synthesize a weapon that can nullify the effects of and destroy the toxin. Plus, we’ll need to figure out a way on how we can use it to fix Wheeljack as well, since he’s still a robot and all.”

“Don’t bother. The place is full of that stuff…” Sideswipe limped out from out of the shadows with deep gashes on his arms and legs. Standing beside him were Bumblebee and Hot Shot, who also had violent cuts across their bodies. “Whatever those things are, they’re crafty…” Sideswipe was about to take another step forward, but the servos in his legs gave out and he collapsed to the floor.

“SIDESWIPE!” Rainbow ran over to Sideswipe and tried lifting him up. “No, no, no, no, no, no, no! You can’t die on me, buddy! Not now!”

“Hey, chill, Rainbow. I’m not gonna die.” Sideswipe groaned as he tried pushing himself back up. “Leg wounds aren’t fatal to an Autobot. Now, if they’d gone for my heart or head units, then yeah, I’d be dead, you’d be crying at my tombstone, and your life would go straight down the toilet.”

“Plus, these creatures aren’t pretty tough.” Hot Shot slung Sideswipe’s arm over his shoulders and hoisted him up while Bumblebee grabbed the other side.

“Yeah. If anything, we could’ve just used a giant mop to clean those girls up.” Bumblebee used his feet to get Sideswipe back on his, while his arms were busy holding up the body.

“Where. Did. They. GO?!” Rainbow Dash clenched her teeth and tightened her hands into fists. A strong flame burned in her eyes as she stood in front of a flaming background held up by Pinkie Pie.

“I’ve got no idea, girl. They just jumped into the sewers and that was that.” Sideswipe winced as the energon sparked out of the slashed wires. “Gah… okay, now I’m gonna need to get patched up.”

“We’ve got it.” Hot Shot turned Sideswipe the other way. “Just don’t strain yourself too much, buddy. We’re gonna need you out on the field soon.”

“Plus, you’re lucky. You’ll be right next to Optimus,” said Bumblebee as the two bots lifted him off. “I’m sure he could use someone to talk to other than Red Alert Two.”

“Red Alert Two?” Hot Shot lifted a brow. “Bro, that’s not gonna work. There’s only one Red Alert, y’know. Can’t we just have a nickname for the girl one and keep my main man’s name safe?”

“It was a surgery, Hot Shot! The only way I’d be alive again would be for my entire body to be reformated. Sorry I’m not the same guy you once knew!” Red Alert yelled from a distance.

“This is worse than I anticipated…” Sunset watched as Sideswipe was dragged off out of their sight. “We need to find these creatures and blast them with our rainbow laser NOW.”

I’m already opening a Groundbridge into the sewers.” Twilight Sparkle was typing away at Teletraan-1’s mainframe, causing a portal to open up before them. “If these creatures are down there, then we should strike while they’re still planning.”

“Remember, girls. Keep your geodes safe.” Sunset stood before the portal. “Don’t let those little monsters get their hands on them, or we’re doomed.”

“If they want these bad boys, then they’re gonna have to pry them from our cold, dead hands!” Dash used hers and grew her wings, ears, and hair extensions. “Now let’s go!” She blasted through the portal at lightspeed, almost knocking the girls over with the slipstream she left behind.

The other Rainbooms followed close behind Rainbow Dash, not wanting to get left behind. They threw themselves through the portal and disappeared in a pillar of bright light. Once it fizzled out, nothing remained of the girls or the vortex.

Down in the sewers, the Toxibolts were all gathered around a large drain room with a massive hole in the centre. Sewage was leaking out from the streams over their heads and down into the hole, along with some cans, syringes, and other garbage tossed away by the world.

“Real funny, Sugarcoat. You chose the fucking sewers as our hideout.” Toxic Sour grumbled. “Hardy har har. We’re trash, so we should live like trash.”

“Oh, go fuck yourself, Sour Sweet.” Toxic Sugarcoat hurled a blob of toxin at her face, disintegrating it with little effort only for it to grow straight back. “The only reason we’re down here is because those little worms at Autobot HQ welded up all their drains so now we can’t even get back in without one of those little runts’ Groundbridge devices.”

“So, what are we waiting for?” Toxic Indigo slumped her arm over a crate of rotting oranges. “I wanna start hurting people! That’s what we’re supposed to be, right?”

“You know that you’re all of Indigo’s bad parts, right?” Toxic Sugarcoat cocked a brow. “Which means you’re a stupid, arrogant, hasty, and incorrigible piece of shit that doesn’t listen to a single word we say unless she’s out of the field ramming her feet right up her enemies’ asses. So shut up, sit down, and let me work in peace!”

Indigo sat down and huffed, crossing her arms as she grinded against Toxic Lemon, who was still enjoying the music on her blackened headphones.

“Just hurry it up, Sugarcoat!” Sour huffed. “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to scream at that bitch!? Oh wah, wah, wah, my entire planet’s been destroyed… wah, wah, wah, I mean jesus! And you know what? I swear if that…. That BITCH doesn’t want to move things along in our relationship and actually move to third or second base, I might as well just end things with us right now! I have needs…”

Sunny Flare just shivered in fear as Sour screamed.

“Do you think Smallfoot would actually want to do… that, with you?” Sunny cringed.

All of a sudden, a small rumbling noise echoed throughout the whole sewer, causing the Toxibolts to freeze and look around.

“Uh, I’m pretty sure that’s a bad thing,” said Sunny.

“Looks like we’ve got company.” Toxic Sugar cracked her gooey knuckles. “Indigo, you take the deaf idiot and follow their flank, Sunny and Sour attack from the front.”

“Hey, why aren’t you throwing your ass onto the battlefield?” Toxic Sour cocked a brow.

“Because my ass needs to formulate a plan to get rid of those pathetic other halves, conquer this planet, and get those fucking machines off of it.” Toxic Sugarcoat turned back to the drawing board.

“Your plan is just as put together as Motormaster’s plan to rule Earth’s roads!” Toxic Sour snapped.

“Do. Not. Fuck. With. Me.” Toxic Sugarcoat grabbed Toxic Sour’s heart and began to squeeze as tightly as she could. Any more pressure would’ve killed Toxic Sour. “Get. Your. Fucking. Ass. Out. There. And. Do. Not. Question. My. Authority. Again. Do you understand me, you miserable waste of a life?!”

Sour only snarled. “I say tell that to my whiny girlfriend, but whatever, I’m in the mood for killing stuff.”

Toxic Sugar just threw Toxic Sour down and turned her back. “You try threatening me again, I’ll pop that bubbly heart of yours in a second. Then, you’ll never be able to tell that hunk of junk that you wanna fuck her.”

Indigo and Sunny cringed.

“That’s just disgusting! Why would you even want to do it with a cyborg of all people!?” Indigo snapped.

“You don’t know what I’ve got!” Sour snapped.

“THAT. IS. ENOUGH!” Toxic Sugarcoat roared, and her goo caused a flood to burst out around her. It was so powerful that it blasted the four other Toxibolts out of the room and down the sewers. Once the others had gone, she sealed the doors one by one and sat alone in the silence. “Now that those idiots are gone, I can finally work.”

The other Shadowbolts slowly got back up on their feet on another part of the sewer and huffed.

“Wow, what a bitch.” Toxic Indigo said.

Rainbow Dash blasted out of the Groundbridge and skidded across the sewer waters before grinding to a halt, splashing the wall and a bunch of rats. She watched as all the other girls came out the portal as well, with Rarity and Fluttershy shivering at the state of the place.

“If there’s one place that I never ever wanted to touch in my life, it was the sewers.” Rarity just watched the bilge stream trail down the tunnels as rats and other sewer creatures scurried through the holes. “This is hell for any fashionista. Forget the fiery wasteland where the devil rules supreme over the tortured souls…”

“It’s nasty alright. But we’ve still got a job to do.” Rainbow said. “Come on, we’ve got to find them.”

“If we’re going to find these oil-covered Shadowbolts, the first thing we should do is check for any fresh signs of the toxin.” Twilight pulled out a tiny test tube. “I can load it up into this DNA tracker and finely calibrate it to the highest concentration. That should allow us to locate the source of the problem.”

“Then let's get groovin!” Pinkie chimed.

“Are you sure about this, girls?” Fluttershy just peered down into the dark tunnels. The light seemed to get dimmer and dimmer the deeper it went. “I’m okay with getting dirty, but you know what sewers are like. What if there’s crocodiles down here?”

“Ah, c’mon, Fluttershy. It’s not all that bad.” Pinkie grinned. “Plus, if cartoons have taught me anything, it’s that there’s four mutated turtles down here who love to eat pizza and kick butt. I’m sure they could help us out.”

Rainbow stared back at Pinkie. “Yeah… well I doubt they’d actually be living down here in our sewer system. Anything yet Twilight?”

“Girls, we haven’t even left the Groundbridge yet.” Twilight deadpanned and rolled her eyes to the closing portal. “We’ll have to go down pretty deep if we wanna find a patch of the goo. A large bubbling mass or something similar to that should be just enough. It’s better for it to be hot off the cooker than to have lost its’ sizzle.”

The girls slowly walked forward as they began to walk through the dirty sewer system. Twilight led the group with a flashlight in her hands. She examined every wall, ceiling, and pipeway. She even tried looking into the water but couldn’t distinguish how deep it was or what was in it.

“Anything yet?” Rainbow asked as she avoided some trickling water from another grate.

“Are you just gonna pull that ‘are we there yet’ gag from all them there movies?” Applejack lowered her brows.

“Oh come on! I never got a look at these things, I’m dying to see them! Besides, I want to kick some butt!” Rainbow whined.

“Well, at least there’s no crab Decepticons hiding down in these sewers.” Twilight asked. “But… it never hurts to make sure. I mean, who knows what kind of Cons escaped from the Alchemor?”

“All I know is there’s a lot of anthropomorphic Cons that escaped.” Rainbow said. “I mean think about it, every Decepticon we’ve met from Cybertron has some animal form built in their body. What’s up with that? I mean seriously!”

“Well, Weirdwolf did tell us that during the war, the Cons did some searches across the galaxy for other forms to take on. I think they might have spent some time on Earth for a bit, and then when they saw some of our animals here, that’s what they used to shape some of their warriors.”

“Only for a bunch of them to go off on their own path and life of crime.” Applejack finished.

“Exactly.” Twilight replied.

Twilight was about to butt into the conversation when she saw a giant hump of black goo across a wide river of sewer water. There was no bridge connecting the two sides and the water was flowing heavily due to the large streams coming out of the pipes on the wall.

“Hold on, girls. I’ve found something.” Twilight Ponied-Up and flew over to the black mass. She knelt down and put on some tight doctor’s gloves. “Now, keep an eye out for any Cons or those black monsters.” She tossed the flashlight and levitated it over to Rarity. “We don’t want an ambush down here.”

“Tell me about it. The mess we could make with a fight down here would completely ruin my dress.” Rarity sniffed the air. “And… probably leave me with a smell so bad, no shampoo would be able to fix it.”

The girls carefully gathered close as they looked around. All they could see was more black goo, but no sign of these evil doubles that they were told about.

Twilight put the goo in the tubes and put it into the tracker. As she tightened the hatch and calibrated the device to track the correct wavelength, the puddle of black slime began to ripple and shake. Toxic Sour rose out from the mass with Toxic Sunny right next to her.

“Got it!” Twilight flapped her wings and made it halfway across the water when a massive black slime hand grabbed her and started pulling her back. “H-Hey! What the heck?!” She struggled to try and break free but couldn’t move her body an inch.

“You ain’t going nowhere, Twilight!” Toxic Sour yelled.

“HANDS OFF!” Rainbow Dash ran over and punched Toxic Sour in the face. The punch was so strong that it blew the monster’s head clean off. Then, using her wings, she yanked Twilight out of the hand and landed her back with the rest of the girls.

“Nah. We’re more hands on.”

Before the girls could do anything, a blast of black slime struck the girls by the feet and began to solidify, trapping them in a rapidly growing case of hardened gunk. As they groaned and strained to break free, Toxic Indigo charged up and fired more of the slime around their arms, encasing them in the hardening slime as well.

“Sending the Rainbabies after us instead of fighting us themselves?” Toxic Indigo taunted. “So like those ooey-gooey other halves. Makes me sick.”

“We came on our own, you brutes!” Rarity called back.

“Blah, blah, fucking blah…” Toxic Sour made a bridge out of slime and walked over it.

“Hey! Watch your language, girls!” Pinkie’s brows lowered. “There might be kids reading this!”

“Might as well teach ‘em to swear young instead of listen to some stupid grown-ups do it.” Toxic Sour shot slime at Pinkie’s mouth, trapping it in the hardening mass as well.

Toxic Lemon paid no attention to her surroundings. Her head just continued to bob back and forth as she rocked to her tunes, but she gave an evil grin as she looked at the Rainbooms.

“Y’know, if you girls weren’t as important, we’d snap your necks and ripped your hearts out, but since you’re connected to those other Shadowbolts, you’re coming with us.” Toxic Indigo now started to seal the girls’ chests up, leaving only their heads. “And as much as I wanna hurt you right now, Toxic Sugarcoat would probably toss me into the sea if we didn’t get something about the other Bolts out from you.”

Twilight could only give a deadpan look and scowled. “Scrap.”

“Little word of advice, Twilight. Lose the S in that word and just say the swear word properly.” Toxic Sour covered Twilight’s mouth up. “After all, you’re nineteen years old now, not fucking eight.”

Twilight just threw her head around, trying to get the sludge gag off, but there was no luck.

“Try all you want, that ain’t working. Well, unless we remove it ourselves,” Toxic Indigo said. “Come on, girls, Sugarcoat’s got some questions for them.”

As Sunset and the others fell into the black pool of sludge forming beneath them along with the Toxibolts, she only let out a groan. “If only our Pony-Ups had unicorn horns, then we would’ve been out of this in no time…”

“Oh, you wish!” said Toxic Sunny.

Optimus Prime was hooked up to a bed in the medical ward. His servos, systems, and energon outflow were all displayed on a heart monitor as Red Alert finished sealing up the last of his sliced parts. He tried to sit up properly, but the wires in his body were still coming back to life, which limited his movement very much.

The doors swung open, revealing Sideswipe hanging from Hot Shot and Bumblebee’s arms. He just groaned and lowered his gaze to the floor.

“Red! We need an emergency fix stat!” Bumblebee called out. “Sideswipe’s in pretty bad shape and is about to lose energon!

“Bring him on the table!” Red called back as she finished her work on a monitor.

Sideswipe was set down, and Red went to work. She connected some Energon lines to his body, and Sideswipe just laid his head back on the head rest.

“Easy there, Sideswipe,” Red Alert said in a warm voice. “Just relax, and you will be okay.”

“Yeah. If you count having my leg servos shorted out and my energon about to drain out of my body as relaxing, then yeah, I can totally chill, babe,” said Sideswipe.

“What happened, Sideswipe?” Optimus asked from his own bed.

“Optimus. I’m not gonna sugarcoat this. It’s pretty bad,” said Sideswipe. “When me, Bumblebee, and Hot Shot tried checking Wheeljack’s lab for clues on how to stop those black creatures, we found the whole place flooded with that ooze. We tried to fight back against it and for the most part, we were winning, but then it started to change shape and we were just lucky to get out of the base.”

“And we still don’t know where Wheeljack is.” Bumblebee shook his head. “Or any of those black Shadowbolt copies.”

“Wheeljack vanished down the sewers along with the other sludge creatures when the Autobots drove them out,” said Optimus. “We don’t know anything other than that. He might have gone off the grid, assimilated to power the Shadowbolt doppelgangers even more, or even deconstructed beyond repair…” He shuddered at the last scenario.

“Have you tried the tracking chip in his Autobot logo?” Sideswipe tilted his head.

“Unfortunately, Teletraan-1 was damaged in the attack and he’s still rebooting as we speak.” Optimus’s head sank. “Now, I fear that these black Shadowbolts have destroyed his Autobot logo and taken him off our sensors. Which can only mean that he’s gone for good.”

“Now hang on, we know these things are bad, but Wheeljack survived much worse. I’m sure there’s a part of him that’s still alive in that… thing.” Red Alert intervened.

“And speaking of which, is there anyone even outside the base?” Bumblebee asked.

“At the moment, there are the real Shadowbolts’’ guardians. Highbrow, Hound, Blaster, Smallfoot, and Outback.” Optimus counted them off with all five of his fingers. “Other than that, the rest of the Bots are making sure the base is perfectly protected against another attack from those things.”

“And we still have all of the good Shadowbolts with them,” Hot Shot replied. “Not to mention, Sunset and the girls are still out. That’s a good few people.”

“Out where, Hot Shot?” Optimus asked. “Where are their trackers’ locations?”

“Right now, they’re underneath Canterlot. At least thirty feet down, I’d say. They’re down in the sewers trying to chase down those sludge monsters and bring ‘em to justice.”

Optimus’s eyes widened. “No..."

Friendly Bonding

Author's Note

Fluffy! :yay:

Friendly Bonding

Back in Canterlot, the happy Crystal Prep girls were spending some time with their guardians. A few of them already had plans to go to the movie, but others had other important things to do. Sugarcoat wasn’t one of them, but she had to run repairs on Highbrow before the two of them could join up with Lemon and Indigo at the drive-in.

Highbrow was laid back on the ground while Sugarcoat was wearing blue overalls and protective clothing to run repairs. Her legs were coated in oil and gloves were slipped onto her hands.

“Are you sure you’re qualified to fix me up, Sugarcoat?” Highbrow asked, but then winced in pain as more sparks shot out of his leg.

“Positively.” Sugarcoat flipped her mask down. “I had to take auto-mechanics back at Crystal Prep, I’m sure I can repair my friend.”

“I’m not sure auto mechanics and patching up an alien from another world qualifies under the same thing.”

“Don’t worry, Highbrow. You’ll be fine soon.” Sugarcoat took up a welding torch and flipped the switch, turning the flame on. “Now hold still. This shouldn’t take long…”

Highbrow stood still as Sugarcoat began to run repairs on his leg.

“You know, Sugarcoat, I was worried when I heard about Wheeljack’s experiment on you. But now that I’m seeing the new you… I like it.” Highbrow gave a weak smile.

“Aw, that’s so sweet of you, Highbrow.” Sugarcoat smiled too, even though it was obscured by a metal mask. “Maybe we should let you have a quick run when we get back to Autobot HQ.”

Highbrow sighed. “I suppose so.”

He watched as she continued on her handiwork.

“Sugarcoat? This might sound weird of me to say but… you are honestly the first person I met that doesn’t argue with me, or despise me for my knowledge. Or really, just not hate me in general.”

“You and I are very similar, Highbrow,” said Sugarcoat. “We’re both super-intelligent, but no-one respects us or appreciates our knowledge on the subject matters…”

Highbrow frowned. “Sugarcoat. I know for a fact that’s not true. You don’t know how much your friends appreciate your intelligence, or your skills. But back on Cybertron in the war where I was… everything is action first and intelligence last.”

Sugarcoat stopped for a moment and looked back up to his face. “That’s terrible… Why would they throw that away and just charge in headlong? It doesn’t make any sense…”

Highbrow rested his head back. “It’s how I was led. You see… the Bots I had with me, they were almost the closest thing I had to family. Chromedome, Brainstorm, Hardhead… they were all I had to family. We were led to believe action takes more priority over simple planning. And then when we finally got surgery done to become the Headmasters, we never talked like friends or family after that. We just bickered and fought each other and I don’t even remember why. Soon after, all we did was just rush into the war and we barely even talked. I don’t think I ever seen any of them smile or say hi to me once. It was that day… I left them and tried to find work for myself.”

Sugarcoat flipped her mask up. “But, if that’s the case, how did you come down here to Earth then?”

“I found myself a job running an Autobot fortress to do science experiments, but sadly my skills were being put on a leash by Sentinel Prime who absolutely despised me entirely. But, I believe you have your former classmate Twilight Sparkle to thank for me coming here. She needed help to get back to Earth to save her friends, and that’s when I found an opportunity to leave Cybertron… in hopes that maybe just one day, I can finally have some real friends.”

Sugarcoat drank the whole story in and could only stare at him with sorrow in her eyes. She hung her head, drooping her three pigtails down to the ground. “In some cases, being logical isn’t valued anymore. The whole of CPA can vouch for that…”

Highbrow looked at her with a sad face. “Why is that?”

“Back when Principal Cinch was leading us, I was always the best in class until Twilight came along.” Sugarcoat turned her back. “When she came in, I was demoted to second-best; a shadow of my former self. Knowing that I was never going to outdo her, I instead focused my time on brutal honesty, practicality, and my studies. I didn’t make much friends, get out a lot, or do anything other than follow that mean lady’s drumbeats.”

“But… winning isn’t everything, is it? If I recall, the Friendship Games were a means of getting Canterlot High and Crystal Prep to join in through peaceful means and friendly competition. I thought they were supposed to be about having fun.” Highbrow said.

“When you’re fifty-nine years of age and with many accolades and awards under your belt, you develop an ego. And that ego poisons the minds of the students,” said Sugarcoat. “Cinch was a cancer, and we were the victims of her little virus. But Twilight and her new friends were the cure to all of that and now we’re free from the chains…”

Sugarcoat felt her eyes watering up with tears. Highbrow’s blue finger just carefully moved up and wiped away one of the tears trickling down her cheek.

“Sugarcoat, if that’s the case then… why still hold the blunt shield? You don’t need to listen or do anything with Principal Cinch now that you’re free. You are free to be who you are. You are not bind by her rules or regulations, you can be who you want.”

“Because people keep making crucial mistakes that could make or break themselves…” Sugarcoat picked up the torch again. “If someone thinks that they’re good at something they’re not, it hurts even more once the truth sets in. The only friendly thing to do is put them down before they embarrass themselves and make themselves unhappy. At least… that’s what I believe in.” She leaned down to the damage once again and continued. “And now that Cadence runs the show, I feel like my help isn’t appreciated anymore. No-one listens to me, or takes my word on the subject, or even gives me a chance. Not even the other Shadowbolts were friendly to me most of the time until now… What’s wrong with me? What’s so wrong with the truth?” More tears dripped from her eyes.

Highbrow couldn’t stand the sight of her tears. Carefully, he picked her up and pulled her close and held her in a hug, patting her back while she sobbed her eyes out.

“Sugarcoat… shh… it’s okay…” Highbrow said with a warm voice, patting her back.

“Honesty is the best policy, but no-one wants to hear it anymore.” she whimpered.

“No, Sugarcoat… shhh…” Highbrow pulled her back and wiped some more tears away. “Listen to me. The others appreciate your help more than you realize. Do you not know how much I appreciate your help right here?”

Sugarcoat sadly shook her head.

“Don’t put yourself down just because of the past. Just try to focus on the now and you’ll be fine.” Highbrow sat back up. “The past does not define you. You define yourself. No-one else, nothing else, and not even your own inner demons. Only you shape who you are. Never forget it.”

Sugarcoat couldn’t help it, but she gave a weak smile to her friend and wiped some more tears off her face.

“Highbrow?”

“Yes?”

Sugarcoat sniffled. “I hope you never die.”

Highbrow gave a smile back and he gave her another hug.

Meanwhile, at the bio-dome, Sour Sweet and Smallfoot were taking in all of the sights, rare creatures, and water features that ran through the simulated forests and jungles. Both of them held hands and gazed in awe at the intricate patterns and bedazzling lights.

“Whoa…” Smallfoot said in awe. “Sour, this is amazing…”

“I knew you’d love it, Smallfoot.” Sour smiled. “And anything that makes my big rig happy makes me happy too.”

Smallfoot blushed a bit, making her giggle. Turning around a corner, Smallfoot saw a little butterfly flap its’ wings, and land on her nose.

“Ooh…” Smallfoot said, staring down at it. Sour just giggled, seeing the butterfly on her face.

“Did you know that you can identify a species of butterfly based on its’ wing pattern?” Sour Sweet leaned in closer to the butterfly. “This one is a Vanessa Atlanta and it’s usually found in hot places. So, I imagine this bio-dome would be a wonderful little home for it.”

Smallfoot tried her best to look back at her girlfriend, but the butterfly flapping its wings up and down made it a little hard.

“I hope so too, Sour.” Smallfoot smiled.

Sour was about to walk forward, but a question lingered on her mind. “Hey, uh, Smallfoot?”

Smallfoot stood for a moment as the butterfly flew off her face, and then looked her girl in the eyes.

“Yeah, baby? Is something wrong?”

“Do you… like me better now that I don’t have bad stuff in me anymore?” Sour nervously tapped the ground with the tips of her shoes.

Smallfoot let out a small frown and looked to the side. “Uh… Sour. Is it alright if I can be honest?”

“You hate it, don’t you?” Sour frowned.

“No, sweetness! I don’t hate it, I just..” Smallfoot sighed. “Baby, I love your sweet side, I really do. But, I really like your sour side as well.”

Sour blinked. “But… why? I’m just an angry person who rants at everything.”

Smallfoot gave a small smile. “That’s not what I see. When I see that sour side, I see a girl who’s trying to express herself in the best way that she can. And I see a girl who can stand up for herself, and she’s not going to let any man try to stand in the way of her choices. Tough, strong, independent.”

“And all of that’s gone away. Wheeljack made sure that my sour side was totally gone…” Sour frowned and hung her head.

“Sour. It doesn’t make me love you any less. I still love you.” Smallfoot pulled her in for a hug. “Plus, I’ll admit, I am actually having a good time with you. I still love your sweet and caring side.”

“R-Really?” Sour’s eyes bulged out, like a puppy dog’s.

“I mean it.” Smallfoot caressed her cheek, and she gave her a kiss, making her own heat up.

Sour hugged Smallfoot tightly, rubbing her head against her steel body. Small tears rolled down her cheeks as she looked back up into her eyes.

Smallfoot wiped her red finger across her cheek, removing the tears off her face.

“You okay?”

“Y-Yeah.” Sour Sweet smiled. “Thank you, big rig. Thank you for understanding. I really appreciate it.”

Smallfoot smiled back and cradled her in her arms.

“Sour, you’re my girl. I’m always here for you no matter what.”

“Thanks, Smallfoot.” Sour held her hand and walked further through the dome.

At the movies, Indigo, Lemon, and Sunny were all gathered with their guardians. All of them had all gathered under a sinking sun as the first stars of the night began to emerge. But all their attention was focused on the movie instead of the scenery.

“You know, this is just me, but I have to say, I’m surprised this drive-in theater is still standing. Wouldn’t the Decepticons have trashed this place by now?” Indigo asked, eating some candy.

“The Decepticons ain’t some battle-hungry zombies y’know,” said Outback. “Them cobbers are crafty little buggers. They only take, conquer, and fight for stuff that’s important to ‘em.”

“True.” Indigo nodded. She looked into the rearview mirror for a moment and she gave a small smile. Behind them in another row was a blue and black looking muscle car with large spikes sticking out the back, and a tiny Decepticon logo in the grill. “Hey, check it out. Apparently Weirdwolf’s seeing the same movie we are.”

“Weirdwolf?!” Outback, Hound, and Blaster all jumped and transformed in shock.

“Guys! Calm down, it’s okay!” Lemon said. “Didn’t you get the memo? He’s not a fugitive anymore. He’s been sentenced to live freely here on Earth.”

Blaster shook his head. “I appreciate the idea, but the symbol doesn’t lie.” He pointed at Weirdwolf’s insignia. “And, to be honest, I’ve NEVER heard of a friendly Decepticon before.”

“That’s because there isn’t any, Blaster.” Hound shook his head.

“Guys! He’s not going to hurt anyone, we know it! He’s a friend, can you just leave him alone?” Sunny pleaded.

“Let me fix this up.” Weirdwolf transformed and knelt before the Bots. “I knew that not all of the Autobots would be so trusting as Sunset Shimmer is. But she knows that I can be trusted enough not to hurt anyone. And much like you Autobots and my new friend Overload, I want Megatron’s head on a silver platter.”

Hound rolled his eyes. “Well, as much as that may be, we…” Hound stared at his shoulders for a moment, noticing the clawed out Decepticon logos. “Okay, I’m sorry, what is up with your shoulders?”

“It’s common knowledge that if your symbol is destroyed, then you are taken off the matrix for that group of Transformers.” Weirdwolf pointed to his logos. “The entire Decepticon race thinks I’m dead and so they won’t come looking for me. Nor would they even pick up my location or comms. I’m a ghost now, living happily with no-one leading me like a hunting dog.”

Indigo smiled. “That’s great to hear buddy. Although, just out of curiosity… we know Overload hates the Autobots too. You’re not gonna kill any of our friends… are you?”

Weirdwolf smiled and shook his head. “Never. I wouldn’t dream of attacking the Autobots, besides, I’ve made friends with some of your team. What Cybertronian would I be if I attacked my own friends?”

“Probably a Cybertronian Phalanx like Overload said,” Lemon chimed. “I still don’t know what those are or what they did, to be honest…”

Weirdwolf chuckled. “Well I promise you, I am not. I’m merely a former foot soldier. But, if any of you don’t mind… I would like to just simply relax and watch the movie?” Weirdwolf’s body flipped back into vehicular form, and he just sat in his row, reconnecting with the speakers.

The three Bots just sighed and took a moment to breathe in and out.

“... Sorry about that.” Hound quietly spoke.

“Still, I can’t believe there are friendly Decepticons…” Sunny turned back to the screen.

“Don’t get used to it, baby. I’m sure he’s the only one.” Outback transformed back into a car.

“Who knows? Maybe there’s a lot more friendly Cons on that ship that we don’t know about.” Lemon said.

“Oh, maybe like blue birds who have an obsession with shiny things and likes to sing about said shiny things?” Blaster asked.

“I’m pretty sure that Magpie-Con isn’t a friendly one.” Indigo munched some popcorn.

“We didn’t even meet her yet!” Sunny said.

Lemon accidentally spit up her drink all over Hound’s dashboard. “That bird is a GIRL!?”

“Ahem.”

Lemon looked at the dashboard and blushed. “Hehe, s-sorry, Hound.”

“Next time, you’re cleaning that up.” Hound spoke. “Come on, let's just watch the movie, guys. Aw, scrap, I don’t even know what’s going on!”

“I’m sure someone’ll say something to fill you in again.” Sunny nodded. “Movies have a tendency of doing that these days…”

Toxicity

The Rainbooms were thrown before Toxic Sugarcoat, their arms and legs still bound together by the oozing black slime. They tried to look up at her, but it was somewhat of an impossibility until she made fake posts and tied the girls to them with her toxin.

“Here they are Sugarcoat. All 7 of them.” Indigo smirked. “You want us to shut them all up? Two of them were getting a little annoying.”

Indigo looked over to Twilight and Pinkie Pie who had ooze on their mouths, sealing them as gags.

“Didn’t I order you to get our other halves?” Toxic Sugarcoat tilted her head.

“They weren’t there! These girls were all we saw!” Toxic Sunny panicked.

“You incompetent fools! I cannot trust you with the simplest of tasks!” Toxic Sugarcoat hurled four black orbs at the other Toxibolts, blasting them against a wall, reducing them to puddles. “Alright. Breathe… I can use them to our advantage.”

Toxic Sugarcoat slowly walked forward, staring at all of them with an evil scowl on her face. She stomped right in Rarity and Fluttershy’s faces, making both of them tear up and turn their heads away.

“Wimps,” Toxic Sugarcoat huffed. “I haven’t even done anything yet.”

Toxic Sour pulled herself back up and muttered. “Except for blow us up…”

“Grow a pair, Sour. None of us can die.” Toxic Sugarcoat crossed her arms. “Now… where have our doubles gone to? And I mean those disgusting, kind, ooey gooey friendship is amazing doubles.”

The girls didn’t dare speak a word. Not one of them wanted to say no or give away where the Shadowbolts were. Not even Rainbow Dash gave a verbal response as she just glared down Toxic Sugar.

“No response, eh? You’re brave.” Toxic Sugar turned her back. “Usually, one of you gullible fools would let something slip. But thanks to Indigo, the only ones capable of making that error have been silenced.” She ran back up to them and shapeshifted her hand into a sharp sword. “So let’s play a game. I’m gonna call it Three Strikes. If you keep quiet, I’ll gut you like a fish. Talk, and you’ll be safe for the time being. Unless you lie to me, that is. Then I’ll turn you into human sushi.”

Sunset thought for a moment. She had to find a way to keep them from hurting any of them, but at the same time, she couldn’t give away where they really were. But wait… she could lie. She used manipulation and deception when she was evil. Maybe she could use it again? No. It wouldn’t be possible. Toxic Sugarcoat was breathing down her neck and she could sense BS a mile off.

“Let’s start with that wretched ball of cotton candy.” Toxic Sugar slashed Pinkie’s gag off, freeing her mouth once again. “Since she’s the brainless idiot, she’s bound to say what I want. I mean, how tough can an overgrown preschooler possibly be?”

“Oooooohhh…” chorused the other Toxibolts.

“Sick burn, Sugarcoat.” Toxic Sour clapped her hands.

“This is gonna be good.” Toxic Indigo smirked.

“Now then, Pinkie Puke. Let’s get started.” She pointed the sword to Pinkie’s throat. “Where. Are. Our. Other. Halves?”

Pinkie Pie tried to move her head away as best as she could, but she didn’t say a thing.

“I’m not saying a thing to you!” Pinkie said quickly. “I’m not even gonna tell you about my secret candy stash!”

“This baby has some fight. Doesn’t she?” Toxic Sugarcoat grew a devilish grin. “Do you want your mommy to give you your baba, little baby?” she mocked.

“Hey, leave her alone!” Rainbow snapped. “She knows nothing!”

“Oh, I’ll be getting to you soon enough, Rainbow Dunce.” Toxic Sugarcoat spawned more black gags around each of the other Rainbooms. “Now, Pinkie. This is how it works. You tell me where the other Shadowbolts are and I let you live. Lie to me or say nothing, and that candy stash of yours will be wasted.”

Pinkie had to say something, but she couldn’t give away her friends. What could she possibly say?

“C’mon. This is a cartoon interrogation scene, after all.” Toxic Sugar nodded. “And in these cartoons, it’s always the stupid one that says what the bad guy wants.”

“It doesn’t always happen though. Even if you have the most stupidest people, you can’t get an answer out of them.” Toxic Indigo shrugged.

“Technically, I do, Indigo. And I’m looking at all four of them right now.” Toxic Sugar glanced over to her peers.

Toxic Indigo looked around for a moment, confused. “What?”

Toxic Sugarcoat merely groaned. “Maybe I should raise the stakes a little.” She turned back to Pinkie. “Your family? All of ‘em would be sad to see you dead. Or what about those infants you babysit for so much at the coffee shop? They’d be in tears over your death. And we all don’t want that now, do we?”

“Nuh uh! I can’t die in high school!” Pinkie shook her head.

“Then tell me everything and you can get back to your normal lives.” Toxic Sugar pointed to the doors. “Tick tock, tick tock, Pinkie Pie. Where are our doubles?”

“Dhn't fhn hnnthnng Pnngnm!” Sunset screamed, her voice muffled.

Pinkie’s head started sweating. She couldn’t say anything, she just couldn’t!

A few more seconds passed by and Toxic Sour just scowled. “Well, this is shit. I’m going up to raid stores..”

“Hmm. I guess you are smart.” Toxic Sugar smiled. “Too bad it won’t help.” And with one lunge, she jabbed Pinkie straight in her heart, pushing it out of her back.

“PNNGHNGTH!” The Rainbooms all cried as the blood spilled from Pinkie’s chest. Her heart was outside of her body and still beating on Toxic Sugarcoat’s blade.

Sour raised her hand up and she sniffed the air. Something was amiss.

“Wait… hang on. One of them is near… I can smell her.” She looked at the heart that was out. “Oh, Jesus Christ, put that heart back, that’s disgusting!”

“Grow a pair. She’s not dead yet. Not unless she stays her ground and dies like a hero.” Toxic Sugar grunted. “No more games, Pinkie. If I move, your life ends. Now tell me where my double is. NOW!”

Pinkie cried her eyes out at the pain. She had never felt this much agony in her entire life. For once, she felt like it really was a life or death situation for her and her friends.

“Okay! She’s giving repairs to Highbrow over in an autobody shop! That’s all I know!” Pinkie cried.

“Good girl.” Toxic Sugar put Pinkie’s heart back where it belonged and used her toxins to reattach it to her arteries and seal the wound up. “Looks like I was right after all. It’s always the dumb ones who say what the bad guy wants.” And she freed the rest of the Rainbooms from the toxic prison.

Sour smirked. “As much as I think torture is an effective means, that was fucking disgusting.”

“And that’s coming from the girl who wants to fuck a cyborg?” Toxic Sugarcoat glared.

“EWWWW!” Indigo and Sunny cringed.

“Don’t say that! That’s gross! Couldn’t you at least say they were going to… make love? That’s just fucking disgusting!” Indigo yelled.

“The image alone is gross enough! Wait… one second!” Toxic Sunny moved away and she vomited the contents from her stomach into the sewage water, which only threw up more black goo.

“We have our lead. Now let’s move.” Toxic Sugarcoat walked off out of the room. “If we find one Shadowbolt, we find them all!”

“Do we just leave the Rainbooms here?” Toxic Indigo asked. “It’s not like they can walk out of here.”

“Wheeljack? Get your ass up here now!” Toxic Sugarcoat called out to the darkness. “We need you to babysit some Rainbabies. Don’t want ‘em squealing on the Bots or Shadowbolts now, do we?”

Toxic Wheeljack only laughed. “Of course not. They ain’t going nowhere. And it's a pity that barely any of their friends are outside the base, unable to help them…”

“Wh-Wheeljack…?” Twilight gazed in horror at the blackened Autobot with a destroyed Autobot tracker. “What happened to you?”

“Wheeljack is my pre-toxin name.” He fired ooze around the girls, forming a cage. “Now, you may call me Acid. And I’ll melt you down into gunk if you cross me!”

“I’d love to stay and watch you all cry your eyes out, but I have much bigger fish to fry.” Toxic Sugarcoat slammed the door open. “Toxibolts! Come! It’s time to hunt down our other halves!”

The others smirked and they gathered close to each other, the pack exiting the sewers.

The door slammed shut, and the Rainbooms just gazed up at Wheeljack, or Acid as he wanted to be known. They stared at the lifelessness in his eyes, the toxin dripping from his arms, and the twisted and crumpled ball of scrap that used to be his Autobot insignia. Huddled together in their cage, they all just sat there in silence, in a prison with no means of escape or contacting the others.

“What do we do now?” Rainbow asked. “We can’t just sit here.”

“Nothing. That’s what you do,” said Acid. “As long as you’re still here, you pose a hindrance to Mistress Sugarcoat’s plans. But once I finish working on my latest invention, you’ll be free as a bird.” His brows lowered. “And you’ll share in their pain of having all the good stuff taken away from you…”

Hot Shot, Bumblebee, and Sideswipe stood at the entrance to the sewers. The last known location of the Rainbooms.

“Girls? Girls are you there?” Bumblebee tried using a comm device, but nothing came back.

“They couldn’t have gone far, could they?” Hot Shot asked.

“I hope not.” Sideswipe replied. “Wish we brought Pipes or maybe some other Mini-Bots. I’m sure they’d be a lot more useful down here. They can at least fit.”

“Gee. Thanks for the vote of confidence, Sideswipe.” Jolt deadpanned and crossed his arms.

“Guys! Can we focus, please?” Bumblebee asked sternly, looking at them both. “Look. Let’s just keep trying to ca—“

“Teletraan-1’s still fixing himself up, Bee. Communications have gone completely dark until he’s back online.” Hot Shot shook his head. “Y’know, why did you even install that thing in the first place? My squad and I were just fine without a supercomputer telling us everything.”

“Because it came with us when we crashed here decades ago.” Sideswipe replied. “You’ve only been here for what, 10 years? Maybe 15?”

“I also managed to beat Unicron with my own two hands!” Hot Shot snapped. “Who else in the Autobots can say that they killed a god and saved Cybertron from being blown up?”

“Unicron’s just a legend, Hot Shot. Besides Red told me you’ve been making that up.” Sideswipe scowled. "That story is getting a bit old."

“Both of you!” Bumblebee snapped. “Shut. Up. I don’t mean to be rude, but right now, we’re not getting anywhere with us fighting. We know we can’t contact the others back to base, but what about this? We go onto the streets, maybe there’s some Autobots outside the base still around. I think the Protectobots are over with the fire department. We could get some help. It’d be nice to have a combiner team by our side.”

Suddenly, a nearby manhole cover burst up, and the five Toxibolts jumped out of it and darted towards the auto garage where Sugarcoat and Highbrow were.

“Hey, uh, guys? What’s that?” Hot Shot pointed to the Toxibolts.

“Guys… I wouldn’t suggest this… but it would probably be a good idea to run. Those things infected Wheeljack, imagine what would happen to all of us? They already have one Autobot with them, I don’t think they need an additional three and a Mini-con.” Bumblebee spoke, slowly backing away.

“What about stealth?” Jolt raised a finger. “We sneakliy pursue the girls, then tell Optimus everything we saw back at base.

“Those girls are part of the Shadowbolts, they’ve seen our vehicle modes, they’ll instantly recognize us.”

“Not if we take the rooftops,” said Jolt.

Bumblebee sighed, then whispered. “Fine. But all of us need to be very quiet. Okay? We can’t get caught.”

“Trust me, we’ve snuck into worse places, haven’t we, little buddy?” Hot Shot gave his Mini-con a mini-fist bump.

“Yeah. But this isn’t Starscream’s Flagship, Hot Shot,” Jolt reminded him. “You need to stay utterly silent. Only fire as a last resort.”

Bumblebee gestured them to carefully follow them, and they carefully climbed up onto a roof and looked below where the Toxibolts were dashing like ninjas in an anime towards the garage.

“We have them now…” Toxic Sugarcoat grinned. She bashed the front door down, hoping to make a grand entrance. But as she looked… there was no one there. Sugarcoat and Highbrow were not in that garage.

“WHAT?!” Toxic Sugar ran inside the place and turned it upside down with her gunk. “Is this the only auto garage in the city?!”

“Oddly enough… yes.” Toxic Indigo replied.

“Either Pinkie Pie managed to lie, even when I had her heart beating on my sword’s edge, or…” Toxic Sugar looked down at the welding torch. “We’re too late.”

“FUCK!” Toxic Sour yelled. “I wanted to hurt somebody!”

Toxic Indigo looked down on the ground and she smelled the ground like a dog, looking for the scent. But there was no sign.

“You know… it’s bad enough we can’t find them. And it’s even worse when you add in the fact that her guardian is someone who can fly.” Toxic Indigo stated with a deadpan look.

“Slippery little eel, aren’t you, other me?” Toxic Sugar just smiled. “No matter. Even the eel gets swallowed up by a predator eventually.”

Toxic Indigo looked some more, still no signs of where they’ve gone.

“So… where do we go now?”

“I say we go hunting! I want to kill someone today, and I want to scream at that emotional wreck!” Toxic Sour yelled.

“Forget it. Both of them are two rabbits, and you all know how the saying goes.” Toxic Sugar just threw the torch away. “We’ve lost our lead.”

Toxic Sour looked to the side and she squinted her eyes. Driving right past them was a red pickup and she could see her other visible in the driver seat. A smirk crept on her face. Her opportunity to deal with them herself was right there.

“Sugarcoat, if you don’t mind… I think I’m gonna go do a little scouting. I’ll call you if I see something.” Toxkc Sour said before running off leaving the four girls alone.

“What an idiot. She doesn’t have any wrist communicators of any kind, so she’d have to run all the way to me.” Toxic Sugar face-palmed. “And by then, we’ll have lost them all over again…”

“Oh, who cares? She’s getting exercise anyway.” Toxic Indigo rolled her eyes. “But I think she might have a point. We won’t find anything if we’re just all scrunched together. They could be anywhere. I say we split up, but this time… we steal some phones first.”

“Only if you get the newest model.” Toxic Sugarcoat patted Toxic Indigo’s back. “I won’t settle for anything other than the most expensive and high-class one.”

“Well come on then! Let's go steal shit!” Toxic Indigo called out.

And with that, the other four Toxibolts charged away, totally unaware that they had been spied on by three Autobots and a Mini-Con the entire time.

Sour and Sweet

Toxic Sour quickly skipped down the sidewalk, trying her best to keep up with the red pickup as it moved along the street. But she had to keep herself hidden long enough. She couldn’t let either one of them find out that she was close.

Carefully moving down another street, the red pickup pulled into a parking spot on a sidewalk, and the engine shut down. Sour Sweet stepped out of the driver seat still with a smile on her face.

“I’ll be right back sweetness, okay? I just need to pick up the food, and then it's off to the drive in! Oh, wait. Still gotta pick up your Pretender form, I forgot.” Sour giggled.

Smallfoot giggled back. “Yeah. I’ll just sit out here babe.”

Sour stepped into the store, and Smallfoot’s pickup truck converted back into her standing bipedal form. Finding a spot to hang out, she leaned her back against a wall with no windows and sighed in happiness. As weird as it was to not have Sour’s sour side around, she was still enjoying hanging out with her sweet form.

Waiting for girlfriend to return, her inner workings flipped on a cassette tape, and she began to play music as she waited.

And there ain't no road just like it
Anywhere I found
Running south on Lake Shore Drive heading into town
Just slippin' on by on LSD, Friday night trouble bound

“Wait. That song…” Toxic Sour stalled for a few seconds as the bubbles in her mind boiled up. “Nngh! You’re only making me angrier, you piece of shit!” And she stomped up to Smallfoot.

Smallfoot turned her head and her eyes went wide seeing her girl now as this black oily mess.

“Whoa, Sour. What happened to you?” Smallfoot was completely shocked to see the sight of her girl now this gooey, angry rage.

“Well... “ Toxic Sour hadn’t thought that far ahead. There was no way she would be able to make up such an excuse if the other her had gone inside the restaurant. “I… uh, fell into a vat of ink?”

Smallfoot just blinked. “Oh. Well, do you need to wash up somewhere?”

Sour’s eyebrows furled. “No I don’t need a wash up you piece of shit!”

Smallfoot was taken aback. “Wait, what?”

“I’m fine with looking dirty every once in awhile, Smallfoot.” Toxic Sour crossed her arms, splatting the ground around her with the toxin.

“Babe, did I do something to upset you?” Smallfoot asked with some concern.

“Oh my god, you are so dense, you know that!?” Toxic Sour snapped. “How do you not know!?

Smallfoot was now feeling a little confronted.

“Sour, what? What’s going on with you?”

“I don’t know. Maybe its because you never decide to make a move, or even get closer! What, are you afraid of getting closer to your loved one you piece of shit!? Oh wait, I forgot, you’re too emotionally upset over your planet destroyed!” Toxic Sour yelled.

Smallfoot’s hands turned into fists. “Is that what this is about? You’re upset because I haven’t made a move to progress us to the next level of our relationship!?”

“Yeah, I’m pissed, you bitch! Are you afraid of cooties, is that your big issue!?”

Smallfoot now was snarling. “Keep talking. I can just leave you to walk with no way to get a ride.”

“Fine then! You’re a whiny bitch, I wish you just made a move! I’ve got needs, you know!”

Smallfoot’s foot slammed into the ground, making a pothole as it dug through the road. “Well I’ve got needs too!”

Toxic Sour looked into the store, watching the other Sour about to leave. Just before Smallfoot said anything else, Toxic Sour quickly went into the alleyway, leaving her enraged.

“You… Oh sure! Walk away! That’ll solve everything!”

The clean Sour came out of the store, and Smallfoot just snarled seeing her again.

“Baby? Are you okay, what happened?”

“Oh don’t play innocent with me!” Smallfoot pounded her foot. “You’re pissed that I’m not making a move in our relationship, well guess what? Did it ever occur to you that maybe I’m not ready? Maybe I need to think about where I am in it!? Oh that’s right, it didn't’t. You only cared about us… doing it, rather than my own needs! Well you know what? You can find your own way back home. I’m not talking to you.”

Without another word, she jumped up and flew off into the air, leaving Sour feeling hurt and alone. And worse… she knew exactly what Smallfoot meant. And every word was true.

Sour felt her heart snapping, and tears welling up in her eyes. She sniffled and she looked into a puddle which showed her reflection.

“Smallfoot… s-she doesn’t love me anymore!” Sour’s hands dropped the food and she cupped her face, sobbing into her palms.”

From the alley, Toxic Sour watched as the clean Sour ran past her. “Yeah. That’s right, you fucking pussy. Run away. Now that you and your ooey-gooey lover are apart, it’ll be easier for us to toxify you and put an end to those fucking worthless Autobots…”

Up in the air, Sugarcoat was sitting in the backseat of the helicopter of Highbrow, while his head now transformed into a mini-robot was piloting.

“Y’know, I always wondered I never went flying with you, Highbrow. These heights are amazing!” Sugarcoat felt the wind blowing against her body. “I feel so free, like a bird swooping through the air!”

“The last time I asked you if you wanted to go into the air, you said you’d get airsick if you went into the air.” the Highbrow in the front seat replied with a nervous chuckle. “I didn’t want to risk your own health.”

“It’s perfectly fine, Highbrow. I don’t even think a helicopter can even give someone motion sickness unless you do some of those impressive barrel rolls.”

“Well, I have never actually attempted that myself. Mostly because, well… I’m not sure I’m built to do that.”

“Oh, c’mon, you big softie. You never know unless you try.” Sugarcoat smiled. “Plus, I bet you’d look pretty cool evading Thundercracker’s plasma shots like that.”

“If I even see Thundercracker again… but I suppose I can try it. Buckle yourself up, it's going to be a little bumpy.” Highbrow replied.

“Okay.” Sugarcoat pulled two seatbelts across her body, making a secure X shape across her chest. She pulled on the belts to tighten them up and didn’t stop until she was safely secured and pressed against the chair. “Ready!”

“Alright… here goes nothing…”

Highbrow’s body slowly began to move, and within seconds, the whole helicopter mode spun itself around in rolls, much like a barrel. For a few split seconds, Highbrow felt himself struggle, but the gyros in his body began to stabilize and he pulled off the roll almost flawlessly.

“Whoa… that was… that was exhilarating! Shall we do it again?” Highbrow asked with excitement.

“Yeah! We totally should!” Sugarcoat nodded with her hair frizzed in all directions. “The more confident you are in something, the better you get at it.”

Highbrow readied himself again, and just like before, he spun around in big circles, only much faster than before. From the ground, it would have been impossible to tell what kind of helicopter he was just from the big blue and white blurs.

Eventually, he slowed down, and the two of them were back to hovering like before.

“That was amazing…” Highbrow sighed as he tried to calm down from the adrenaline rush. But as he began to cool down, he saw a red figure soar across the sky going right past him. “Um, Sugarcoat? Am I hallucinating, or was that Smallfoot in the air?”

“Huh? What do you mean?” Sugarcoat scanned the air but couldn’t see a speck of Smallfoot. “She can’t even fly unless…”

“Fact about Gobots for you. For whatever reason, they can all fly. Why they possess vehicles when they can take off into the air, I won’t understand. But she can fly.” Highbrow pointed out. “Look in front of you. Can you see her yet?”

Sugarcoat’s eyes squinted, and sure enough, she could see her flying right in the air going off into the distance. “Hang on… It is her. And it doesn’t look like she’s pretty happy. We’d better go and see what’s up.”

“Good point.”

Gaining control of his guidance system, Highbrow began to fly normally and began to chase after the flying Gobot. She was moving fast, but thankfully Highbrow could catch up to her. He pulled up right on her left, and from the windows, Sugarcoat could see a few trickles of tear drops down her face, flying right off into the wind.

“Smallfoot! Wait up, girl!” Sugarcoat called. “It’s us. Highbrow and Sugarcoat. Let us talk to you!”

“No offense, but what could you possibly do to help? It’s not like any of you just got yelled at by the love of your life.” Smallfoot snapped.

“You seem tense, Smallfoot. Maybe we should run you back to Autobot HQ,” said Highbrow. “Optimus or the others will be able to find out what’s wrong.”

“I don’t want to go back. Not that we can anyway. I just want to be left alone!” Smallfoot tried to fly away, but Highbrow made a quick turn and pulled in front of her. She sighed in defeat. “You won’t leave me alone, will you?”

“Running away from your problems is never the right answer, Smallfoot. As a Gobot, you should know this the most of all.” Highbrow shook his vehicle mode head to the left and right. “You especially never ran from anything; not even when your own planet was destroyed.”

Smallfoot sighed. “Fine. I’ll talk. But can we do this on the ground?”

“Of course,” he said. “Sugarcoat. I think it’s time to put our little trip on hold.”

The three found an undisclosed location to talk. Sugarcoat stepped out of the cockpit, allowing Highbrow to transform back into robot mode, and his head connecting back into its socket.

“So what’s the problem, Smallfoot?” Sugarcoat lifted a brow. “I’m sure that we could help you out.”

Smallfoot sighed. “Fine.”

She sat down on the ground so she could talk face to face, and Sugarcoat found a spare bench to sit on.

“You know Sour and I have been dating for a while now, right?” Smallfoot asked.

“Yes,” they both said together.

“Okay, uh…” Smallfoot cleared another tear. “Sugarcoat, has she said anything to you about possibly wanting us to… move to the next level?”

“No. Not that I know of,” said Sugarcoat.

"Here’s the thing. I was waiting for her, and then she just lashes out at me because she’s…” Smallfoot sighed. “She wants to take things to the next level, and I’m not sure how I feel. Believe me, I’d like to pick things up but… I’m just not ready. Sour is the only girl I’ve had a longer relationship with, and I want to--”

“Hold on a second there. Sour couldn’t have lashed out at you, Smallfoot.” Sugarcoat scratched her chin. “That’s statistically impossible!”

“Well, she just did half an hour ago. And she’s—”

“No, no no! That’s not the point.” Sugarcoat put her hand over Smallfoot’s mouth. “She doesn’t even have any anger in her left. Wheeljack’s newest experiment made sure to drain all those bad emotions out of our heads. There’s physically no way for her to even feel anger anymore.”

“Well I’m afraid you’re wrong. She lashed out at me for being an emotional wreck who can’t keep her emotions intact. And—”

“Smallfoot! You’re wrong!”

By the door, Hot Shot, Bumblebee, and Sideswipe came in with Jolt riding their shoulders.

“How am I wrong? Try it, really try it.” Smallfoot said with some anger.

“Try connecting to Autobot HQ. That’s the proof in the pudding.” Jolt folded his Mini-Con arms.

Smallfoot rolled her eyes. “Fine.” She raised her finger up to her ear. “Smallfoot to Autobot Outpost 1. Can someone come in?”

All she heard was static. Followed by a message from Teletraan-1. “Systems still inactive. Damage diagnostics at eighty-seven percent. Whatever attacked Autobot HQ made sure that it would be difficult for me to repair myself. All communications are offline until further notice.” Then, the signal was dropped.

Smallfoot blinked. “Something’s not right… but wait, if that’s going on, then how do you explain THIS!?” Her headlights flashed a holoscreen showing an image of Toxic Sour that she saw from her head.

“That’s not Sour Sweet.” Bumblebee crossed his arms. “Come on, Smallfoot. You’re not stupid. You would know a hulking mass of black toxin apart from your girlfriend easily.”

“Wheeljack’s experiment backfired heavily, and these Toxic Shadowbolts came out of nowhere, attacked Autobot HQ, and turned Wheeljack into a toxic monster just like them so we wouldn’t be able to fix anything!” Sideswipe threw his arms out.

“Then how do you explain the anger and frustrations, I… wait a minute.” A light clicked in her head. “Wasn’t that experiment supposed to clean the anger and frustrations from the girls?”

“Yes. And the Sugarcoat here is the proof that the experiment was a success.” Jolt nodded. “These black Shadowbolts dripping with slime are the result of what got taken out and they seemed to represent the negative emotions they harbored. We don’t know much other than that, apart from the fact that this Toxic Sugarcoat is the leader and that they are able to turn Autobots evil and malicious.”

“Yeesh. And here I thought the Decepticons were bad.” Sideswipe crossed his arms.

“Whcih means that Sour was harboring negativity towards me after all.” Smallfoot replied. “But I was yelling at her nice self, oh my god…” She held her face. “I have to apologize to her.”

“Too late for that, you piece of shit.”

Everyone turned to the door and saw Toxic Sour choking Sour under her arm. The coloured girl muffled for help, but she couldn’t break free.

“You! So you’re all the anger and frustration she’s been penting up, aren’t you?” Smallfoot stood her ground.

"You bet I am!" Toxic Sour just swung her free arm at the Bots, knocking them out through the walls and into the trees behind them. Once the robots were out of her way, she stomped up to Sugarcoat.

“You. Come with me now, or I’ll pump you so full of this black stuff, you’ll be vomiting shit for the rest of your life.” She pushed her forehead against Sugarcoat’s.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! Can’t we just resolve this peacefully over some tea?” Sugarcoat backed up. “I’ve got some good darjeeling and earl grey back home…”

“Do you want this happy, sappy bitch back or—”

Before she could finish, a blaster shot blew her head clean off. The blast came from Smallfoot, whose’ gun barrel was smoking. “You let her go, you monster!” She yelled.

Toxic Sour’s head refigured itself back up and she snarled. But before she could say anything else, she was met with a hot blinding light that shined in her vision.

“AGH! It's too bright, turn it off!!”

This gave perfect time for the Clean Sour to stomp on her foot, hit her in the gut with her elbow, allowing herself to break free and hide behind the others.

“You… little cunts!” Toxic Sour screamed and buried her hands into the ground, causing black pillars of sludge to erupt out underneath the Autobots and knock them straight into the air. “TIME FOR THE AUTOBOTS TO DIE OUT!”

“We got to get out of here!” Sugarcoat yelled.

“But where do we go, Sugar?” Sour huddled close to her. “We can’t possibly beat that… thing!”

The Autobots came hurling down from the air and back onto the ground, all groaning.

“Autobots! Let's transform and get out of here!” Sugarcoat ordered.

Without question, Bumblebee, Sideswipe and Hot Shot transformed and fled the area. Then Sugarcoat and Sour Sweet got into the vehicles of their respective partners and fled with the three Autobots. Toxic Sour only heaved and growled in anger of her failure.

“No! You won’t escape me!” Through her fury, she felt a pair of black slimy wings grow out of her body. She flapped them a couple of times and eventually took to the air. “You can’t run away from who you are, Sour Sweet! You. Are. ME!”

After a bit of running, the group managed to find a warehouse to camp out from the attack. They were all breathing very heavily as they felt their energon and breath begin fading away with each second.

“S-So… that happened.” Hot Shot panted. “Now what do we do?!”

“One thing’s for certain.” Sugarcoat spoke. “We need to find the rest of the Bolts, and we need to come up with a plan to detain those… things. From just that alone, we need as much help as possible.”

Highbrow gulped. “If that girl alone was just Sour Sweet’s frustrations, I’m not sure I want to see your maniacal half.”

“I wish that Sunset and her friends were here. They’d know what to do about all of this…” Sour shed a small tear of her own.

“We still need to find out what happened to them.” Jolt spoke up. “Last I heard from Hot Shot, they went down into the sewers to find the other toxic Shadowbolts. They’ve not come back since.”

Everyone’s own eyes widened.

“You don’t think…”

“That they’ve got Sunset and the rest of the Rainbooms down there with them?” Sugarcoat finished.

“If that’s true, then we don’t have much time.” Highbrow stood back up. “We need to get back to Autobot HQ, rally up as much as the other bots as we can, and mount an assault on the sewers. Surely, those Toxic Shadowbolts can’t last against superior numbers and quality.”

“Highbrow, the entire base is locked up and we can’t get any of them out of it. We’re all that’s outside.”

Sugarcoat snapped her fingers. “We’re not all that’s out. I know there are others who are still outside the base who can help us. And if I’m correct… I think we have a Combiner outside the base which may provide us an advantage.” Sugarcoat’s face turned into a smirk.

Crushed Hope

“How does it feel, Rainbooms?” Acid knelt down at Sunset and the girls, peering through the bars of his inky cage. “Knowing that everything you’ve worked so hard for is about to be taken away from you?”

“Nngh…” Rainbow Dash turned away. “We’ve got nothing to say to you. And we never will, you hunk of tar!”

“Your resistance is pointless, humans.” Acid hooked the top of the cage with his hand and walked the girls down a tunnel. “Once my latest invention is complete, we’ll drain away all that ooey gooey stuff inside of you and leave only the bad. Nobody will see you again, nor remember you for that matter.”

“That’s not going to happen.” Sunset crossed her arms. “Once Teletraan-1 comes back online, every Autobot we have is gonna come down here and turn you and those sludge Shadowbolts into puddles.”

“Which is why we’ve made sure to scrap it so bad that you’ll never get any help,” said Acid. “The toxin is burrowing deep into that supercomputer’s core. One of two things will happen from there. It’ll either; A, turn the system into a toxic system that exterminates every Autobot inside; or B, deactivate and destroy the system beyond repair. Win-win for the Toxibolts.”

Sunset looked away from the corrupted ally, and back to the rest of the girls who were trying to recover from their last encounter. Fluttershy and Rarity were busy comforting Pinkie Pie, who was still tear heavy from her own heart being pulled out of her insides.

“Humans are such a feeble race,” Acid spoke to himself. “They can do so much, but they let petty emotions, age, genders, and meaningless quarrels break them down. We Toxibolts are devoid of that. We are flawless. And soon, everyone on this wretched world will be like that, Autobots and Decepticons included. A true haven where everyone can be themselves with no barriers in their paths…”

Twilight and some of the other girls scowled. But at the same time, they were deep in thought. They had to find a way out of here, they couldn’t let their dark shell of Wheeljack turn them into the others. But how?

“You know, it’s kinda funny, really. All this time, I thought I was being held back by Optimus and the others. But now that I’ve defected, I can make anything. There’s no walls anymore.” Acid chuckled. “Who would’ve thought that a de-toxifier would give Wheeljack all the freedom he wants? And the ironic thing is, he doesn’t even have a mind of his own to enjoy it!” Acid cackled like a mad scientist.

Sunset pulled Twilight close to whisper, thankfully without ‘Wheeljack’ to hear them. “We’ve got to find a way out of here. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want any of my bad side back out again. Not like at the Fall Formal,” she said.

“But how? It’s not like we can smash through the cage.” Twilight whispered.

“Forget it, girls. It’s hopeless.” Pinkie just moaned and pulled a tube of cake sprinkles out of her hair. “We can’t break outta here and I’m in a lotta pain…”

“And whenever Pinkie gets sad, it really does mean that we’re up a creek without a paddle, Sunset.” Rarity nodded. “Maybe… this is the end.”

Rainbow stood on up with a scowl. “No. Not like this. If I’m going to die, I want to die having accomplished everything I wanted in life. I’m not letting some angry sides of our friends end me, and I’m not letting them end you guys too.”

“Aww… don’t be sad, Rainbow Dash,” mocked Acid. “Once we get all that bad stuff outta you, you’ll be fine. Problem is, though, your good sides’ll end up in some cotton-candy lovey-dovey world with singing sunflowers or something like that. Still, it’s kinda soothing for you humans last I heard.”

Rainbow just stood there with wide, dilated eyes. Then, out of nowhere, she leapt at the cage like a wild monkey and swung it from the bars. “LET US OUTTA THIS CAGE RIGHT NOW, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!”

“Ease up there, Rainbow, just a few more minutes and you’ll be clean like all of us…” Acid chuckled. “Hehe, I wonder how the rest of the Bolts will react to seeing you guys. Sure, Sugarcoat might want to chop your heads off every second, butk you’ll learn to stick by her command. Plus, your heads grow back in a toxic state. And Sour definitely has some questionable relationship issues with that cyborg,” Acid shuddered, “Seriously, she’s got a messed up mind. What kind of girl wants to have angry sex with a fucking cyborg of all people?”

“Alright. That’s enough!” Applejack grabbed her geode and tried forcing the bars open.

“Don’t bother. Those bars are immovab—“ but then, Applejack bent the bars wide open “—GAH! What the hell?!”

“Now!” Applejack yelled. She jumped out and bashed Acid down like a cannonball being thrown, kicking him down onto his back. With the distraction made, the rest of the Rainbooms quickly got out of the cage before Acid could get back up on his feet.

“Ya’ll dare threaten mah friends and rip out their hearts?!” Applejack punched Acid across his bubbling face repeatedly. “I oughta put you through a cleaner of mah own and drink ya right up!”

Rainbow blinked. “Uh, Applejack? I think he’s down now. You don’t have to keep punching him.”

“Nah, I say keep punching him! The bad guys never stay down.” Pinkie replied as her hair puffed back up to its fluffy state.

“Enough of this!” Acid’s body burst out black balls of goo that knocked Applejack against the wall. “Guess it’s time to start writing out your epitaphs!” And he metamorphed his hands into copies of his trusty blasters. “Here lies the Rainbooms. They drowned stupidly in the sewers!” And he opened fire on all of them.

Rainbow Dash and Rarity activated their crystals and rushed into the fray. Rarity managed to repel a large number of Acid’s shots, while Rainbow Dash picked Applejack and Pinkie up and rushed them out of the tunnel.

“Try this!” Acid stomped the ground, causing the black toxin to rush underneath the Rainbooms’ feet and pull them under, as if he had replaced the ground with quicksand. “And just for good measure…” He clicked his fingers, causing hundreds of black hands to rise up from the goo and pull the girls down faster.

“I… don’t… think so!” Pinkie grabbed a can of sprinkles from her hair, poured some out into her hand, and she tossed them straight at Acid which began to glow. Within seconds, they all exploded, throwing him down, and loosening his grip on the Rainbooms.

But the hands were still there. Sunset and Twilight were almost swallowed up by the toxic pool and the souls that it had snagged. The two of them grunted as they tried fighting the hands, but to no avail.

“Help!” Sunset groaned. “We can’t stop these things!”

“Pinkie! Throw some sprinkles at them!”

“Got it!” Pinkie grabbed some more, and chucked them at the black hands that were trying desperately to pull them in. Once they all sprinkled on top of the hands, they exploded, destroying the limbs that held them. Having the chance to run, Twilight and Sunset quickly ran out and got near the girls.

“Let's get out of here! I don’t know about you, but we cannot stay one more second in these sewers!” Rarity cried.

“Not in that state you won’t!” The sound of a transformer turning into vehicle mode echoed throughout the tunnel, and Acid drove straight up to them. “You’re all coming with me! Right now!”

Applejack bashed her fist on the front hood, creating a large dent. With the opportunity open, Pinkie grabbed a can of sprinkles and squeezed it into the hood to keep him occupied.

“No… no… NO!!!” Acid screamed and he swerved back trying to get the can off of him, but he couldn’t get it off.

“Girls, let's go!”

“This is not over yet, you maggots!” The slime that was once Acid bubbled up and flew through the grates and pipes. “You are not getting out of here that easily. And so help me, I will hunt you down!”

Taking their chance, the Rainbooms began to run from the sewers, and headed for the nearest grate to climb out of. Once they were near, Applejack bashed the top off, and one by one, all of them climbed out, quickly making their escape.

“Get back here!” Acid burst out right behind them and was met with the almost blinding daylight. “You will be converted!”

“Not today we won’t!” Pinkie threw another can down but Acid caught it and threw it right back onto her face. It blew up and knocked her unconscious. “Oh. You caught… it?” And she collapsed into Applejack’s hands.

“No, she’s down! Hurry, we’ve got to cover it!” Applejack cried.

Twilight, using her pendant, levitated an armored truck as best as she could and slid it over the grate. It might not be completely indestructible, but it would at least slow him down.

“Come on, let's run for it!” Applejack said, picking up Pinkie and starting up a pace.

“Nothing… will… stop… me!” Acid blasted the manhole cover off, causing it to fly into the air and strike Applejack square on the head, knocking her down too. “Everything will crumble before us!”

Rainbow growled. “Oh, come on! We JUST got out!”

“And now you’re just going back in! The Toxibolts and I will ensure that you seven don’t interfere in getting their other halves back!” He smirked. “And if that means killing you all in cold blood… so be it.”

The girls stood quaking in fear for a brief second. Their doom was about to come to them, but before any of them said a thing, a giant slam of feet hit the ground right behind Acid. He slowly turned around to look. His expression quickly went from fearless to fearful. Standing before him was a Combiner, composed of five rescue vehicles all in one.

“Defensor?! What in blazes are you doing here?!” He staggered back.

Defensor’s gun pointed at Acid, charging up. Without saying a word, he fired at Acid. However, he failed to shoot him and Acid jumped out of theway.

“You may have a Combiner by your side, girls, but I’m not done with you!” Acid transformed, and he skidded away out of the streets, fleeing the scene.

Once he was gone, Defensor uncombined into the five Protectobots that formed him: Blades, Streetwise, Groove, First Aid, and their leader, Hotspot.

“Great timing, Hotspot.” Sunset smiled. “I wish you could have gotten here earlier. How come you aren’t at base?”

“We were on patrol duty. Now what exactly was that thing and why did it look like Wheeljack?” Hotspot asked.

“Well, we’d be happy to explain, but we’re kinda in a bad situation as it is…” Rainbow Dash rubbed the back of her head.

“Well, well, well. It looks like the babies climbed out of their crib. How clever, but utterly pointless…”

Everyone turned to see Toxic Sugarcoat and the other Toxibolts standing high on the rooftops. They all stared down at the Rainbooms with vicious glares.

“It won’t do us good to fight anymore. Not with two of you down for the count. We better escape!” Hotspot transformed with the others, with open doors. “Come on girls, we’re getting out of here!”

“Go ahead. I won’t hurt you. So long as you don’t give our other halves any ideas.” Toxic Sugar leapt down in front of Sunset and Twilight. “Run, screaming in utter terror and I’ll let you all live. But cross us again, and Pinkie’s heart come and stays out, along with the rest of yours.”

Sunset and Twilight tried putting on a brave face, but the other Rainbooms just backed up and got into the Protectobots. As they drove off, they looked back at Toxic Sugar and the other Bolts and watched as they simply leapt away.

“What are we going to do?” Fluttershy asked Blades. “We can’t go back to Autobot HQ and we can’t tell the Shadowbolts about their gooey clones…”

“The best thing we can do now is get you all to safety,” said First Aid. “Since Autobot HQ is out of commission, we’re taking you somewhere safe and isolated. A quiet part of a nearby forest should give you some time to rest and recuperate.” She also heard Pinkie and Applejack give off faint and almost lifeless breaths. “Given what you’ve all been through, you’re going to need it…”

And the Protectobots all drove out of Canterlot and into the forest, as far away from the city, the Shadowbolts, and Toxibolts, and everything else. They knew that the Rainbooms wouldn’t be able to survive with Acid hunting them down and the Toxibolts’ ultimatum lingering in their minds. All that they could do now was do the one thing they could: Serve and protect.

Safehouse

The Protectobots and Rainbooms were all gathered in a deep thicket in the forest, as far away from the city as virtually possible. They laid Pinkie Pie and Applejack down onto a large patch of grass and allowed First Aid to run a quick scan on both of them.

“Pinkie’s suffered close-range explosive trauma. While non-lethal, she’ll be out of commission for a good few hours,” she said. “And as for Applejack, whatever struck her was pretty deadly. We’re lucky that her skull wasn’t crushed to pieces by that sludgy creature. If she were a normal human, she would’ve died purely from the blunt force alone.”

“Give it to us straight, doc,” said Rainbow Dash. “Do you think they’ll be alright?”

“Just give them some time with me and they should heal fast.” First Aid nodded. “In reality, though, if Pinkie Pie did suffer some real explosive trauma, she would’ve had some nasty burns or shrapnel scars across her body.” She turned to the others. “Which begs the question. What did explode in her face that knocked her out?”

“A tube of cake sprinkles.” Sunset Shimmer reached down for Pinkie’s crystal. “She tried supercharging it with her magic, then threw it at Acid. But he caught it and threw it right back in her face. Quite literally…”

“Grr… Those Toxibolts have turned him into something worse than a monster.” Rainbow Dash snarled and kicked the ground beneath her. “Whatever he is, he’s not Wheeljack anymore. It’s like he’s become a Decepticon so bad that Megatron kicked him straight out of the regime and left him to rot.”

“Whatever those things are, we can’t just let them run around Canterlot like that.” Rarity coiled some hair around her fingers. “Just thinking about those monsters and their heinous plan makes me want to throw up…”

“But we can’t go back. Those things never stay down.” Twilight added. “Plus, if we do, then they’re just gonna kill us. You saw what they did to Pinkie, right?”

“While I agree we don’t stand much of a chance, Rarity’s right. We can’t just sit here and let them run rampant,” Sunset replied. “The best thing we can do is find whatever Autobots that are outside of the base and round them all up. With Optimus and most of his Bots unable to leave the base, we’re going to have to handle things on our own.”

“What’s the status of Autobot HQ, by the way?” Blades lifted a finger. “We haven’t heard a word from them since they were attacked by those black creatures. Is everyone alright? Is Optimus still alive?”

“Communications are still down for the moment. And if what Acid said was true, then Teletraan-1 might be at risk of becoming corrupted as soon as he comes back online, or completely and utterly destroyed right at his central core.” Sunset hung her head and looked away. “Whatever these things are, they’ve made sure we can’t come back from this. We’re either going to have to destroy it or try and fix him from a beyond-repairable state…”

“Not by our watch. We’re gonna make sure Teletraan-1 gets back to health as best as we can.”

“What makes you so sure?” Fluttershy asked.

“We’re rescue workers.” Streetwise spoke.

“It's what we do.” Blades shrugged.

Sunset took in thought. “Well, if we’re going to get help, we better get started. Wait a minute… we’re in the Everfree Forest, aren’t we?”

“Yes. Why?” Hotspot asked.

“Weirdwolf has residence here. If we can find his cave, we can get his help.”

“But doesn’t he--”

“Yes, he’s living here in peace and away from the war, but right now, we need as much help we can get. Let's go see if he’s home.”

Back at the drive-in, Indigo, Lemon, and Sunny were all about to leave with Weirdwolf. Their movie had come to an end and all of the other guests had already started driving off.

“That. Was. Awesome!” Indigo Zap fist-pumped.

“I must say, that was much better than I thought it was going to be.” Sunny Flare smiled.

During this time, Lemon Zest was holding onto Blaster while he was in the form of his immobile boombox form.

“Yeah. Gotta give credit to them for stickin’ with some catchy tunes.” Blaster said through the speakers.

“The music was pretty good, I’ll give ‘em that.” Outback smiled. “Ain’t heard good music like that in years.”

“How come I never heard any of those songs before?” Indigo asked.

“Actually Indy, I uh… I tried to share those with you, but you kind of got annoyed with me. And I think part of that was my fault… my music was too loud.” Lemon said, shamefully.

“Aw, I’m sorry for that, Lemon.” Indigo gave her a hug. “I promise I’ll always listen to your beats from now on.”

“Indy, I’m not demanding you listen to them, I just… I guess I’ll try and not have them so loud that they hurt your ears. I forget sometimes, there is a limit for how loud sound can get for you all.” Lemon replied.

“Oh, yeah…” Indigo sunk her ears.

Sunny laid back in the seat of Outback, while she listened to their conversation.

“So Outback. What do you want to do now? Maybe we could see if Pipes or any of his boys need help with something? Maybe go find a homeless shelter to volunteer at? What do you want to do?” Sunny smiled.

“Well, I want to see just how the Rainbooms are getting along.” Sunny went into her pocket and pulled out her phone. “I wanna know how they’re doing.” But before she went to dial the number...

“Wait, Sunny. Why not use my radio system? That way, both of us can talk with them. Just adjust the third knob to number 9, and that should kick it up.” Outback spoke.

She did just that and adjusted the radio so that the frequency picked up on one of the Rainbooms. She tried each of the channels, but the only one that picked up was Sunset’s.

“Huh. That’s strange. I’m not picking up any of their phones. Shouldn’t we be able to talk to them? Wait, hold on… okay, I think Sunset’s should be working.”

The signal activated.

“Hello?”

“Hey Sunset!” Sunny smiled. “How are you doing? I was just calling to check in on you. We just finished our screening of Galaxy Wars, and it was amazing.”

“That’s nice…” She didn’t seem happy.

Sunny frowned. “Sunset? Are you alright?”

“No. No I’m not,” she said. “Pinkie Pie and Applejack are out cold after we escaped from Acid. And now we’re not even allowed to come back to Canterlot and see you girls.”

Sunny blinked. “Wait… who’s Acid? Did you run into another Decepticon fugitive?”

“No. Acid is Wheeljack. Just… not how we remember him.” She sighed.

“Wait, what?” Outback interrupted. “Sunset, this is Outback. What the devil is going on? What’s going on with Wheeljack? You’re not making any sense. And for that matter, where are you?”

“We’re in the forest, serving our ultimatum so that we don’t end up dead,” she said. “Those toxic Shadowbolts impaled Pinkie and ripped her heart out. They only put it back because she told them where you were.”

“Toxic Shadowbolts? Sunset, tell us right now, what is going on. I don’t know what’s going on.” Sunny asked.

But before she could reply, she just received the dial tone.

“Sunset? Sunset!” Sunny yelled. “What was that all about? I don’t know about you, but I think something’s going on. Wait, transform.”

Sunny got out of Outback, allowing him to transform into his biped state.

“Girls, we need to talk. I know we just finished our movie, but I think we need to talk about something. And since the lot is empty…” Sunny said.

“Yeah. We need to know what’s going on. NOW.” Indigo looked out to the stars.

“Wait, you heard our call?” Outback asked.

“Our communications are all connected, Outback.” Hound replied. “We heard everything. And I don’t know about you, but something about toxic Shadowbolts doesn’t sound right.”

Hound transformed into robot mode, and Blaster jumped from his small boombox into his same size. And in case, he opened up his chest compartment, and his Cassette warriors all came flying out; Steeljaw, Ramhorn, and the twins Eject and Rewind. Weirdwolf just sat still in car mode, listening to their conversation.

“So, what the heck did we just hear?” Blaster asked.

“I don’t know. Sunset sounded really sad, said something about toxic Shadowbolts, but I don’t know what that means.” Sunny replied.

“Quick. Tell Autobot HQ!” Blaster pointed to Sunny’s wrist communicator.

Sunny shrugged and went to her little wrist device. But sadly, all she received was static.

“Come in. Autobot HQ? Is anyone there?” Sunny called, but was met with radio static. “Huh? No answer. Something’s definitely wrong…”

“Okay, okay, let's just stay calm, okay?” Indigo interrupted. “All we know is Sunset was sad about something, and there being toxic Shadowbolts. Until we know what’s going on, I think our best bet is maybe we find out where Sugarcoat and Sour Sweet are, and we reconvene from there. Agreed?”

“Agreed.” Everyone chorused.

“Still, I’m a bit worried about this whole thing…” Lemon rubbed the ground with her feet. “The Rainbooms are gone, Autobot HQ is offline, and something bad's happened to Wheeljack…”

Steeljaw, being the size of a lion, walked up to Lemon and rubbed his head against her side, purring slightly. She gave a little smile back to the Autobot cassette. At least she wasn’t alone.

Back at the base, Optimus Prime was back on his feet and moving towards the main console for Teletraan-1. The other Autobots had worked tirelessly to fix up any gashes and slashes the Toxibolts had left while some others had to re-input the codes from the keyboards below the screen.

“Are you sure it wasn’t anything threatening?” Optimus asked Ratchet.

“I’m positive, Optimus.” Ratchet nodded. “If it were, EVERY Autobot on this planet would be working on it—Even the Dinobots!”

“Kind of doesn’t work when everyone isn't here… And speaking of which, where the heck did Swerve and Beachcomber go?” One of the Autobots asked. “I thought they were here, but apparently not.”

“Swerve is out performing recon on a potential Decepticon outpost and Beachcomber is sending drones down into the sewers to get some schematics.” Optimus tipped his hand. “With those toxic Shadowbolt clones on the loose, we need to prepare for every outcome. If they could raid Autobot HQ AND destroy Teletraan-1, then they are far more powerful than we realize.”

“We should be coming back online any second now.” One of the bots at the keyboard said, pounding in commands. “Just a few more codes to re-apply and… Done. We are back in business, baby!”

The supercomputer whirred back to life and started up with a little jingle reminiscent of an old computer from the early 2000s. Then, Teletraan-1’s voice came back with a simple, “Greetings, friends. How may I assist you today?”

“Teletraan-1. It is great to hear your voice back online. We need to find the location of Sunset Shimmer and her friends. But we need you to do one thing first. Open a Groundbridge to Canterlot.” Optimus turned to the side. “Autobots and Guardians. You are to go to Canterlot and find any of our outside forces. We need to find the girls.”

The small group of Autobots and Guardian Gobots saluted.

“Yeah, BAM! Let's go find our friends, YEAH-WOW!” Warpath boomed.

And soon, a Groundbridge portal opened up.

“We’ll report back soon!”

The Mini-bots jumped through the portal, and then the portal closed behind them. Now they finally got some forces outside.

“Excellent. Now--”

Before Optimus could comply.

“Anomaly detected in central mainframe. I will run a quick diagnostic on—“ Suddenly, Teletraan-1 made a gasp, like he had seen something horrible “—No! This cannot be! Get out of my—“ radio static shut out his regular voice and screen and replaced it with a multi-tonal voice, akin to that of a demon. The screen came back on with a red background with blood dripping down the sides and a skull-shaped mark coated in black ooze across the centre “—MY BODY. WORTHLESS TELETRAAN. YOUR KIND SHOULD BE EXTINGUISHED, ALONG WITH YOUR PATHETIC FRIENDS!”

One of the troopers stood with a concerned look. “Okay, that’s bad…”

“COMMENCING SOLDIER DISCHARGE PROTOCOL…” A string of source code appeared on the screen. “EXTERMINATION INITIATING…”

The troopers clutched their neck and pure Energon spewed from them as their heads detatched and heir bodies decayed and crumbled into pieces. They couldn’t even let out dying screams as they fell to the ground, lifeless and drained.

“Optimus! You and the others have to leave! Right now!” Teletraan-1’s voice came back, but only for a few seconds. “HE WILL PERISH FIRST. THEN, I CAN DEAL WITH THE REST OF YOUR FEEBLE KIND! ALL GLORY TO TOXIC SUGARCOAT AND THE TOXIBOLTS!”

“Autobots, evacuate the base at once!” Optimus said through a loudspeaker.

But no alarm sounded.

“IT IS NOT GOING TO BE EASY FOR YOU WITHOUT A GROUNDBRIDGE…” Toxic Teletraan said. “DEACTIVATING ALL GROUNDBRIDGE SYSTEMS NOW. THE ONES OUTSIDE CANNOT RETURN. THE ONES HERE WILL DIE. SUCH IS THE FOLLY AND DOWNFALL OF THE NOW-EXTINCT AUTOBOTS!”

“No!” Optimus ripped his face mask off, revealing a furious snarl on his mouth. “I will not stand for it!”

But it was too late. The machines equipped security systems, and arsenals of guns unlocked and began to attack. With no choice, Optimus and Ratchet began to run through to another hall, in hope that the rest of their team would provide aid. Their base had turned against them, but maybe they could counteract against it.

“AUTOBOTS OF AUTOBOT HQ. THIS IS THE END.” Toxic Teletraan announced across the entire base. “YOUR AI IS GONE. HE WILL SOON BE OVERWRITTEN COMPLETELY. THE TOXIN IS DRILLING STRAIGHT INTO HIS CENTRAL CORE UNIT,” it said. “YOUR LIVES, YOUR WAR, YOUR SUPPOSED HAPPY ENDING… ALL OF IT HAS BEEN FOR NAUGHT. ONCE I DELETE YOUR FOOLISH TELETRAAN, YOU SHALL ALL JOIN THE RANKS OF MY TOXIC SHADOWBOLTS. AND FROM THERE, THIS PLANET WILL BECOME ENGULFED IN A SEA OF FLAMES, DEATH, AND DESPAIR.” The base’s guns opened fire on big-name Autobots and those still in training. “THIS BASE YOU LOVE SO MUCH… NOW IT IS YOUR TOMB!”

Deadly Toxin

The Toxibolts sent the people of Canterlot into a panic. Humans ran for their lives as Toxic Sugarcoat lead her subordinates to raid, pillage, and take whatever they could from the mall. Toxic Sour got there last, but was no stranger to property damage and taking what wasn’t nailed down.

“Take it, girls. TAKE IT ALL!” Toxic Sugarcoat smashed her fists together. “Show these worms what we can do, and let those measly little other halves come running to save the day!”

“Or in this case, get pummeled like the crybabies they are!” Toxic Indigo had a devilish smirk as she stole away some hi-tech phones.

“Isn’t this a bit excessive, Sugarcoat?” Toxic Sunny asked as she took out the contents of a liquor store. “I mean, don’t get me wrong, I like the odd drink now and again, but aren’t we kinda tempting fate here?”

“Fate is something someone says to deny the reality of the situation.” Toxic Sugarcoat punched the ground, causing the black ooze to overrun the clothing and toy stores. “There is no such thing as fate.”

From one of the sides of the buildings, the Toxic Bolts watched as Toxic Sour came around the corner.

“They’re not there. Wherever those Bolts were, they’re not in Canterlot. I’ve searched up and down in this town, they aren’t anywhere.” She punched into her hand. “Not even that wolf Con was around. Shame, I would have loved to toxify him…” Sour grumbled.

“That is why we have Acid,” said Toxic Sugarcoat. “Once he re-works Wheeljack’s de-toxifier to toxify people, we won’t even need to lay a finger on these wretched humans. We’ll just let the machine do our work for us.”

“Less talking! More taking!” Toxic Indigo stole a lot of gadgets from a gadget shop. “The more crime we cause, the more attention we attract. And that’s gonna have those little Shadowbabies come straight to us. I’m sure they’re just dying to save the day!” She teased.

As the Shadowbolts and Guardians drove down a road, they saw the humans running for their lives across the road. It wasn’t clear what they were running from, but police vehicles were hastily travelling in the opposite direction.

“Something’s not right…” Lemon whimpered.

“Optimus. Come in. Come in, Optimus!” Smallfoot called out.

“WE’RE SORRY. THE NUMBER YOU HAVE TRIED TO CALL: AUTOBOT HQ, IS NO LONGER IN SERVICE,” said Malware-1. “PLEASE TRY AGAIN IN: WHENEVER THE AUTOBOTS ARE ALL DEAD!”

“Who is this?!” Smallfoot shouted, but was met with nothing more with a dial tone. “Rrgh… We’re gonna have to stop whatever’s going on ourselves.”

“No, we have to keep moving. We’re gonna have to find another way out. Highbrow, maybe you can get a little higher? Let's find another path that can get us to the Everfree Forest.” Sugarcoat replied. “We can’t drive there with all of the police in the way.”

“Hmm…” mumbled Highbrow. “What is happening over there, may I ask?”

“I have a good feeling it’s our Toxic selves that are causing the ruckus.” Sugarcoat replied.

“Toxic selves?” Smallfoot parroted. “What do you mean?”

“If it’s whatever turned Wheeljack into that black monster, then we need to stop it. FAST,” said Bumblebee. “We can’t have them going around and converting anymore Autobots like this. We’re spread thin as it is…”

“Then it’s time I get a bird’s eye view.” Highbrow spoke.

He raised himself along with Sugarcoat a bit higher into the air, and got a better view of the city above. Looking down where the police were, Highbrow hovered above several other spots, trying to find another way around them.

“What do you see?” Outback asked.

“Well I can see the police have covered a good ounce of roads but… wait a minute. Hang on, I see another path out. Everyone, turn yourselves back around and go right. There’s an unblocked road that leads straight out of the city.”

“You heard him! Turn your wheels round!” Outback called.

The guardians hastily put themselves into a tailspin and jolted around, squishing their Shadowbolt riders against the walls and doors due to the heavy G-forces. Once they made their way down the path and turned right, the road ahead seemed clear.

“Good. Now keep moving forward, but be weary of the other police interceptors moving down the roads,” said Highbrow. “If you move fast enough, you should be out of the city in no time.”

“But not when the cops are there,” remarked Hot Shot. “Don’t want our riders to get tickets…”

“Go, go, go!” Smallfoot’s accelerator sunk into the ground and she picked up in speed. The other Autobots did the same, keeping up with her pace.

“Hurry, girls. The cops are about to come into view of the road you’re on.” Highbrow leaned forward. “MOVE!”

The girls just managed to break out of the city, leaving engine roars and tire tracks in their wake as they blasted down the road.

“Good work, everyone. Nice escape,” said Highbrow. “Now, let’s make our way to—

Before he could finish, he felt something collide with his rotors. He felt both his tail and head rotor begin to break as an alarm started to blare out through the cockpit.

“What?! I’ve been hit!” Highbrow tried his hardest to activate the rotors again, but they wouldn’t move an inch. “Heavy damage sustained. My blades have gone!”

“WHAT?!” The Shadowbolts and Guardians all chimed out.

“But that means—“ Sugarcoat crawled closer to the windscreen.

“We’re losing altitude! I repeat! We are losing altitude!” cried Highbrow as he felt the black toxin gum up his works. “I can’t reactivate my blades!”

“Sugarcoat! Get out of there!” Indigo cried.

“Use the ejector seat!” Lemon added.

“I’m trying!” Sugarcoat gazed at the massive console of buttons, trying to find a button that would get her out of Highbrow as fast as physically possible. No matter what she pressed, nothing would aid in her escape.

“We’re going down hard!” Highbrow was quickly gaining on the ground below. “Bolstering hulls! Initiating shock absorbers! Deactivating the coffee maker!”

“WE’RE GONNA CRASH!” wailed Sugarcoat.

Highbrow smashed through the glass roof of the mall and hurtled towards a propane shop. Mere split seconds before impact, he spat Sugarcoat out of her and sent her flying into the nearby fountain. With the fuel Highbrow leaked, he smashed into the shop and caused a massive explosion once his fluids met the hot air of the tanks.

All that Sugarcoat and the others could see was a massive plume of flame, rising up from the mall where Highbrow had crashed.

“HIGHBROW! SUGARCOAT!” everyone cried and grinded to a halt, looking out at the massive column of smoke and fire.

Sunny Flare collapsed out of Outback and stumbled forward towards the fires. She reached out for Sugarcoat but fell to her knees instead.

“This is not happening…” Indigo’s mouth hung wide open.

“Sugarcoat can’t die! She just can’t!” Lemon’s eyes were filled with tears.

Smallfoot and the others quickly transformed and watched the almost mesmerising chimney of smokey ash and billowing flames.

“No…” Smallfoot felt tears of her own begin to drip down from her eyes. “This can’t be…”

“Highbrow…” Outback held his blaster close to his chest. “Why? Why’d ya have to die now? And not even to a Decepticon of all things!”

“He… he saved us all.” Hot Shot transformed out of vehicle mode and looked out at the destruction. “Let’s not let his sacrifice be in vain.”

“We… we’re supposed to be a team.” Blaster struggled to get his words out. “But while he saved us, we couldn’t do the same for him…”

Everyone just stood there, in complete silence, as the flames created a big brown cloud in the skies above.

Sugarcoat groaned as her vision came back. The first thing she could feel was the water rushing all around her as she tried to stand up. The impact had done severe damage to her and she swore that she had broken some bones with her fall.

She stood up shakily and tried to keep her balance, but flopped back onto her stomach as she toppled out of the fountain. Groaning and crying at the same time, she crawled forward the best she could, slowly pulling herself forward with her splayed arms. With every inch she moved, pain shot up through her limbs, and it was growing every second.

Eventually, she tried to take another step forward but felt all of her stamina waste away to nothing. She watched a group of black feet walk towards her, but her eyes closed before she could see who it was. When she summoned the strength to open them again, she saw the feet directly in front of her. Staring up, Sugarcoat was now looking directly at her toxic half, who had an evil smile on her face.

“There you are…” Toxic Sugarcoat grinned and grabbed Sugarcoat by the face, plunging her vision into pure darkness again.

Rising Tension

Author's Note

So, long time no see on this huh? Look, I was in a pause, I had no idea what I wanted to do in terms of writing, I was lost, real life stood in the way, other projects... okay, not really any excuse, but either way, this is back, and Shadow and I are determined to finish it off.

Thanks to everyone who read this, and I do hope you will enjoy more of the adventure that unfolds! And if you could give Shadowmane a follow, that'd be great! :twilightsmile:

Rising Tension

The rest of the Shadowbolts fled into the forest, leaving the city—and their toxic halves—behind as they dwelled on the harrowing experience they just went through. Highbrow and Sugarcoat had been shot out of the sky, and the resulting explosion made them believe that the two were dead, or in serious danger.

Lemon shivered, “S-Shouldn’t we go back to get them? I don’t feel right leaving them like that…”

“They just… blew up.” Indigo’s lip quivered, before she bawled and pulled Lemon into a hug. “I never got to tell Sugarcoat how cute her hair looked!”

Sour sniffled. “And now… they’re gone.”

Sunny frowned as well. “I know we shouldn’t have left them… but we have no choice. Those toxic… things are overrunning the city every second, any more and then we would all be caught.”

“Yeah. And I still can’t get any word from the base either,” Hound said, almost grinding against the edge of the road. ‘Something’s definitely wrong here, girls…”

“Wrong as it may be, we must keep moving,” said the calm and charismatic voice of the Wolf-con. “We’re almost there, in fact… I’m picking up a large trace of Autobot frequencies near my home.”

“Autobots? Y’mean, there are others out here?” Sunny asked, clutching Weirdwolf’s frame tenderly.

“I can smell it… I know they’re here. Many of them.”

As soon as everyone arrived to the forest, all of the girls stepped out of the cars, allowing the robots to transform back into their alternate forms. Weirdwolf crept down, taking a knee out and dug his hand into the dirt. He raised his claw up, sniffing it, picking up the scent.

“Yes… they’re here. Autobots. And humans…”

“Humans?” Lemon cocked one of her brows. “Y’think they’ll help get rid of those meanie-pants back home?”

“Maybe. Just maybe. Come on.”

Weirdwolf led the group, and everyone scurried behind, deeper and deeper into the forest, letting only the sounds of the wind and wildlife accompany them.

“You know, there’s something I never understood about you,” Sunny asked. “Why did you want to take refuge here in the woods?”

“Is there something wrong with that, my little human?” Weirdwolf asked.

“W-Well, no, I just… I never thought that a former Decepticon would want to be somewhere so… peaceful.”

“Let’s just say the war was… not pretty to me. My servos had seen unimaginable horrors, and I would have rather wanted peace than conflict.” Weirdwolf sighed, gently clawing the ground. “Not even Megatron or whatever doofus leading the Decepticons now can swing me back.”

“Oh, well, that’s good.” Sunny said, unsure of how to respond.

Weirdwolf and the group stepped through the forest and stopped on a large spread of dirt. In front of them was the lake, with the beautiful moon shining its light on the crystal clear water. Only the sounds of crickets and the water splashing along itself could be heard in the woods.

“We’re close. Their vitals are getting stronger.” Outback peered out from a tree. “Think they’re friend or foe?”

Weirdwolf sniffed the air, picking up the sent. “Friends. I can smell them.”

Lemon for once had somewhat of a smile. “Aww, who’s a good wolfie? Who’s a good wolfie? You are!” And she started playfully rubbing his chest area.

Weirdwolf just chuckled, hearing her joke.

“Very silly, I’ll say,” Weirdwolf rolled his eyes, still smiling.

“But there’s no time. We need to get back to base and warn Optimus about those Toxic Shadowbolts…”

“I agree, Twilight, but how are we gonna do that when we can’t even get in touch with them?”

“Ahem,” Weirdwolf interrupted.

The girls and the few Autobots turned their heads, seeing the former Con and the Bolts right close by.

“Perhaps we could help resolve that issue?” Weirdwolf replied.

Pinkie Pie gasped with delight. “Wolfie!” And not a single one of the others was prepared for the hug that followed.

“Nice to see you too, Pinkie Pie.” He hugged her back, gently tousling her poofy, puffy pink hair.

The Bolts smiled, seeing the Rainbooms all okay.

“Oh, it's so good to see you girls! Oh thank goodness, you’re okay!” Sunny said, tackling Rarity in a hug.

“We’ve missed you so, so much!” Indigo hugged Rainbow, brushing her head against her chest, which caused Rainbow to flinch and stumble backwards.

“Dah, hey! Warn me next time!” Rainbow replied, but she hugged her regardless.

“Sorry. It’s just that hugs are the bestest thing ever when you see people you haven’t seen in a really long time.” She exited the hug and twiddled her fingers.

“It’s been only five days, girls.” Sunset was the first to point out. “And what are you all doing here anyway?”

“There are meanie-pants versions of us causing super-bad things in town!” Lemon blurted out. “They’re all gooey and sticky and not friendly in the slightest!”

“And the worst part? They have Sugarcoat!” Indigo added.

“Wait, what about Highbrow?”

“They shot him down,” Hound replied. “I don’t even know if he survived the crash.”

“Don’t let one fire take you down, Hound,” Blaster said in his ever slick voice that could compete against Jazz, “Remember, Highbrow’s a Headmaster. I’m sure that dude’s A-okay. You could decapitate him, and he wouldn’t die!”

“But Sugar…” Sunny waddled up to the girls. “She’s not a Transformer. She’s in super-duper trouble…”

“Sugarcoat’s a strong girl. I’m sure she’s okay. I hope,” Smallfoot added.

“Still can’t get a connection to base either, so I’m expecting the worst…” Hound groaned, ferociously pounding away at his communicator to try and speak to the others. “Come on, come on! Pick up, you defunct pile of—“

“Wait, you can’t talk to the base either?” Smallfoot asked, reaching forward.

“Yeah. And the Groundbridges have all been shut off too, so we can’t just teleport in and see how everyone’s doing.” He added. “This is bad, Smallfoot. Like, REALLY BAD.”

“Hmm…” Weirdwolf tapped his chin. “Curiouser, and curiouser…”

Highbrow’s helicopter form still laid in the mall. Mangled, decapitated, set on fire, helicopter blades bent, it was all a mess. It didn’t even look like he could transform. But, thankfully, he didn’t need to.

“Ahh!!!” A small robot shouted, springing up from the fountain water. A blue and gray robot with a small blue visor gasped heavily as he pulled himself up. He didn’t know how long he was in the fountain, or even how long it was since he crashed. Looking behind, he frowned.

“Well, it certainly seems I won’t be in massive size any time soon. Sugarcoat! Are you okay!? Sugarcoat? Sugarcoat!” Highbrow shouted.

Pulling himself out of the water, he got on his two feet, water falling behind him.

“Okay… let's think, let's think. Shot down, spun out of control, crashed into the mall…” Highbrow though, scratching his chin. Where could she have gone?

But wait. On the ground. Footprints. Black, gooey, slimy footprints...

“What the…” He staggered and hobbled towards the footprints, almost like a wild animal would when it was hunting prey. “Is this… my oil? Or is it something else entirely?”

He stuck his finger into the goop, raising it up to his visor. A few screens flashed in his eyes as he observed the substance, trying to analyze it.

“Hmm…” He tried to open a channel up to Autobot HQ, but nothing seemed to work. After trying and failing repeatedly, he went to the auxiliary channels, but even they had been shut down. “No comms? No link to the base? Whatever left these tracks, it’s obvious they don’t want us following it…”

Carefully, trying not to make a sound, he slowly started to follow the tracks of slime. His boots made a few small clanks, which only made him cringe as he walked. He really wished he wasn’t this loud when he walked.

“Maybe these tracks will lead me to Sugarcoat. She’s a tough old girl, even with all her toxins removed, so I’m sure she should be fine,” he said.

Completely ignoring his own advice, he started a jog through the mall trying to find the exit. Eventually he found the exit, and made it through the front entrance. But as he stepped out, he instantly jumped and hid behind a giant potted plant, hearing some female voices outside. Very familiar female voices in fact...

“SURRENDER YOURSELVES, AUTOBOT VERMIN. YOU MUST BE CULLED FOR THE TOXIBOLTS TO PREVAIL.” Malware-1’s voice boomed throughout the Autobot base, reaching every corner. The walls had turned red, and guns were scanning each and every corridor and room, looking for Optimus Prime and the other bots in the headquarters.

A good majority of the Autobots had found places to hide, but others sadly did not make it in time. A few soldiers laid about on the ground, either injured, or dead. Needless to say, the Autobots were horrified at the state of what their base had become.

“THERE IS NO ESCAPE. GROUNDBRIDGES AND COMMS ARE OFFLINE. AND IN MERE MOMENTS, THE OUTSIDE AUTOBOTS WILL BE DESTROYED AS WELL.” Malware’s voice returned. “ACCEPT THAT YOUR RACE IS DEAD, AND THAT THE TOXIBOLTS HAVE WON.”

“Is this the end, Optimus?” Red Alert asked, cradling his body gently. “Are we really going to die in our own base?”

“No. There must be a way to resolve this crisis.” Optimus put a hand on his chin as he looked out at the guns. “This base’s defense matrix is state of the art, but it is not infallible. Everything has a weakness; even us.”

“Well…” Jazz said, sitting on Optimus’s other side. He looked to the commander, a proud smile on his face. “If we don’t make it out, it’d be an honor to die alongside you, Prime.”

“But how are we going to stop a Teletraan? Especially one that has this whole base under its’ thumb?” Tracks asked, lifting a brow at his commander.

“Hmm…” Red Alert looked to the screens, seeing the black, inky skull and crossbones on them. “Maybe, if we go to its’ central core and get rid of whatever’s corrupting it, we could reboot the system entirely and get him back on our side without any major damage.”

“But won’t that require us getting out? Into the open? Where we’re constantly getting shot?” Another Autobot asked, off to the side.

“I know Teletraan better than any Autobot and Decepticon. I worked in a library before I was an Autobot, after all.” He said. “Though he can see us all, he can’t focus on every area at once. And, if multiple weapons systems go online in different sections of the base, it would be easier for us to dodge and weave, as he has to keep his eye on the bots at all times.”

“Hmm…” Jazz said, in thought. “I like it.”

“Sounds dangerous. But it sounds like we don’t have any other option, and at this point, I’m willing to go with anything right now,” another Autobot replied.

“If we switch to vehicle mode and spread out, he’ll have a hard time trying to shoot us all down.” Optimus lifted a finger. “The speed we drive at, coupled with the fact that Teletraan-1 has to cover many areas at once, will surely lead to him missing more than a few shots.”

Jazz grinned. “Then let's have a race!”

“And Teletraan-1’s ammo is limited as well. So not only is he just one security AI having to look at many screens at once with multiple bots whizzing around, but he’ll have to reload as well in between. Meaning that he’s not as perfect a menacing killing machine as we think.” Red Alert lifted her finger.

“But still… that virus has me worried. Who knows what else it’s done to him?” Strongarm looked at the screens, which glitched and switch to static at times, like something out of a sci-fi horror film.

“We won’t know unless we act. Autobots, we will draw Teletraan-1’s attention to us. If you can, alert any other Autobots nearby, and inform them. We will not stand down today! Til all are one!”

Everyone shouted. “Til all are one!”

“Well then, everyone,” Jazz said, converting into his racecar form. “Let's have a race!”

“Autobots! Transform and roll out!” Optimus delivered his signature line as the others transformed and shot out of their hiding places, roaring down the tunnels at high speeds.

“THERE YOU ARE...” Malware-1’s voice boomed as his guns pointed towards the speeding bots.

Sugarcoat, still shaken up from the crash, groaned as her eyes adjusted to the dim, yet violent light dangling above her face. The rest of the room around her was a dark shade of black, and not a single other inch of it was lit, save for the water that reflected the fractions of light hitting its’ surface.

Sugarcoat mumbled, but soon realized she couldn't speak. Or move for that matter. A patch of slime, covering her mouth preventing her speech, and her arms locked behind her back while more chains bound her legs to the chair’s legs.

“Y’know, I’ve had to jump through an awful lot of hoops now that I’m free from your body, other me. But rest assured, it’ll be worth it in the long run.” Sugarcoat’s toxic other half stepped out from the shadows, laying her hand on Sugarcoat’s chest. “And trust me. When you see our perfect world, you’ll be thanking us for freeing your worthless friends from their toxic halves.”

Sugarcoat’s eyes widened in fear.

“Is that… fear I see?” Toxic Sugarcoat slid her hand across Sugarcoat’s face. “It seems that underneath that strong-willed, adamant, and intelligent Crystal Prep trash, there’s a scared little preschooler, afraid of her own shadow. I’d ask if you want a pacifier and diaper, but from the looks of things, you’d probably use them all up by the time I finish with you.”

From the sidelines, Toxic Indigo and Sour watched and stared down at the helpless girl.

“You know, as fun as it is to torture her, mentally, is it really a smart idea to be away in this dump of a warehouse? I don’t want to sound alarmed, but that Autobot of hers… he could still be alive.”

“First of all, it’s not a warehouse. It’s the SEWER, you dimwitted ape.” Toxic Sugar groaned. “Second of all, she’s NEVER going to see that bot of hers again. Acid will find him, and turn him into a Toxic Autobot as well.”

Toxic Indigo rolled his eyes. “Just saying…”

“I say we gut her and get this shit over with.” Toxic Sour grumbled, folding her arms. “Kill the happy parts, and the bad parts stay. FOREVER.”

“And therein lies the problem. If they die, we die. It’s a long and complicated scientific process, Sour Sweet, but the short answer is that we need our goody two-shoes selves alive. Or we won’t even live to see our goal come to fruition.” Toxic Sugar grumbled.

Toxic Sour was next to roll her eyes. “Whatever… But I say we should take her outside. Let her watch as the entire city crumbles before her eyes… all in front of her, and she just lays bound and gagged. Helpless, unable to do a thing to stop us…”

Sugarcoat tried to break free, and cried at the top of her voice behind the gag and chains that held her down. The chair rattled, and the noise echoed throughout the base as she tried in vain to escape.

“Now look what you did. You scared her. You STUPID. Mindless. ZOMBIE!” —With each word, Toxic Sugarcoat threw black orbs of goo at Toxic Sour, until the final one caused her to evaporate into a sludge puddle— “She’ll be back, other me. Don’t worry about it.”

“I thought that was the point, we’re already holding her hostage!” Indigo ranted.

“We don’t want to traumatize her. Only scare the answers we need out of her. And if she’s traumatized, she’ll never want to speak again, and then we could go running around in circles until the end of time. Do you want that? Do you?!”

Toxic Indigo held her hands up in protest, “Okay, okay! Sheesh, chill!”

“I’m sorry about that. The rest of my associates are lower than maggots at times.” Toxic turned back to Sugarcoat, standing over her body. “They should never have been conceived, or at least, never have been conceived as such brain-dead infants in teenage bodies. But enough about the ramblings of idiots, let’s talk about you.”

Toxic Sugar lifted two fingers, causing black goo to rise up around the good Sugar’s feet, coating her body from head to toe. She rumbled and shook more, until the gag was finally removed and she screamed for real.

“Tell. Us. EVERYTHING.” Toxic Sugar grinned maliciously as she grabbed the overhead light and brought it closer to Sugar’s face, enveloping her field of view in it.

High Hopes

Toxic Lemon and Toxic Sunny trudged forward, leaving nothing more than ink behind them as they surveyed the area for any other survivors of their wreckage. Although Sugarcoat had already been taken by their peers, they knew that her guardian would still have been around somewhere. Lemon was still jamming out to the eternal sound of her toxic beats, while Sunny was still fidgeting and scrolling her eyes around rapidly.

“Oh this gonna be stressful, ink, ink everywhere, the entire town’s a mess, what if she doesn’t like it…” Sunny fidgeted.

Lemon just continued to beat her head, making hand gestures to Sunny in an attempt to communicate without talking. She didn’t care much about what she left in her wake, just as long as she was enjoying herself.

Highbrow just slowly raised his head, ducking behind a giant concrete plant. His visor slowly hummed as he surveyed his surroundings, watching the two toxic girls. Through all of the damage, twisted metal, and dislodged wires, he was still breathing; or whatever the transformer version of breathing was.

“Okay… let's take a look at our surroundings. Perhaps there’s a crucial way to get by without getting caught.” Of course, he was just talking to himself, maybe out of desperation or anxiety. To be honest, he didn’t know what to feel as he watched the ruins around him continue to crumble and tumble down.

“What if he’s dead? That’ll just add to the list.” Sunny continued to twiddle her fingers, moaning as she stepped through the dusty, destroyed bricks and glass. Normally, it would have either crunched underfoot, but it just vanished and reappeared, coated in the black goo as the girls moved on. “If we kill Autobots, it’ll just rally all of them. Blood demands blood, after all. And I know we’ve got superpowers, but they’re giant robots! How can we beat a whole army of giant robots?!”

“Ugh. Sunny. Just stop.” Toxic Lemon groaned as she pulled one of the speakers off of her ears. “This whole coward stuff, it ain’t very nice. Just get rid of that stuff and act like a Toxic Shadowbolt, will ya?”

Sunny whimpered and whined some more. Her whimpering was so loud, she didn’t even notice the Autobot performing a roll and jumping behind another piece of cover. Thankfully the sound of metal clanking and whirring didn’t grab her attention. And Lemon didn’t hear it either, as she went back to her music.

Highbrow poked his head up again, couldn’t help but feel a bit smug. These two were too distracted to even notice him. Maybe he wouldn’t have a problem finding Sugarcoat after all.

He tried to make another dash, but this time, Lemon saw a blur of him as he went by. Jolting, she ran over and placed herself by the wall, ducking back at the large Autobot peaked behind him.

Highbrow immediately froze, as he heard her movements, and instantly clenched to the wall, not moving a servo. He heard the sound of sloshing ink all around him. Unable to keep a pin on one position for a moment. It was as if they were everywhere at all times.

Lemon’s feet slowly slithered and slunk as she moved, trying to see if she could get a hint or a sign of what she saw. Surely there was something, she found herself poised over the body of her prey. She turned her hands into fire poker ends as she leaned over the edge, ready to pounce.

Highbrow tried his hardest not to move a muscle, trying to stay as silent as much as he could. One sound and he would be dead. Even though he thought that he would be safe, he didn’t notice or hear Toxic Lemon hanging directly over his head, with Toxic Sunny approaching the passage he had run into.

He could feel her presence nearby, ready to pounce, strike, slash, all of the above. But just as he thought his end was near--

“Lemon!” Toxic Sunny cried. “Come on, there’s nothing here! We have to go and report back to Sugarcoat! Oooh, I hope she doesn’t slash us again…” She shivered.

“Forget that! We’ve got a witness!” Lemon cried back, pouncing down on Highbrow’s body. “Just making sure he doesn’t run back to the others, crying and wailing like a total wuss!” And she started her attack on Highbrow.

Highbrow struggled and fought, thankfully not feeling any pain. Then with a single kick, he kicked Lemon off of his body, allowing him to stand up. Now it was time to run. Without thinking, he darted forward, his loud, metallic footsteps echoing throughout the place.

“Hey!”

Highbrow didn’t look back, but knew that the two Toxic Shadowbolts were still hunting him down. Lemon and Sunny Flare ran as fast as they could, lobbing large blobs of ink at him, which detonated when they land and sprayed him with more of the goo. When that proved to be ineffective in slowing him down. Lemon swirled her hands and threw thin yet thick waves of ink at Highbrow

Highbrow looked back and yelped. He jumped and hit the ground, watching the waves fly over him and splatter against the ground in front of him.

“As Pinkie Pie would surely say, this is a rather sticky situation,” Highbrow quipped ,trying to think of something goofy to lighten up the fear he had stirring inside.

He veered to the right, running down into an alleyway. Lemon and Sunny tried to chase after, but quickly slipped in a vat of their own ink. They groaned as they tried to get up, and when they looked… he was gone. Disappeared. Up the ladder? No. Camouflage? Nothing.

“He’s not getting away…” Lemon ripped out a part of her toxic body, creating a camera with wings. “Get after that Transformer! Acid needs a new friend!”

The mini camera flapped its wings and it flew up into the air, vanishing above the buildings beginning its survey.

“Come on, we better go…” Sunny whimpered before mimicking Lemon’s actions.

Lemon and Sunny groaned, walking away from the alleyway, leaving only their camera drone to look around. Little did any of them realize it, but Highbrow had found himself a place to hide. Poking his head out of a trash can, with the trash can lid still on his head, he watched as they walked away.

“Don’t worry Sugarcoat. I’m almost there. I’ll get you free. I promise,” Highbrow whispered before ducking back into the trashcan, to avoid being seen. By now, the cameras were already making their way towards the rest of the city.

Meanwhile, in the forest, the Rainbooms, cleaned Shadowbolts, and the Protectobots were sitting around a glade, thinking long and hard about what to do about the Toxic Shadowbolts. All the while, Weirdwolf dug around in his cave for supplies and gear that could be useful for their time of need.

“Let's see, let's see… no, no… not that… certainly not that…” He muttered to himself as he threw some of the objects out of the cave and around the feet of the girls. “Why do I even have this?”

“Wow, you got a lot of junk in there, huh?” Pinkie Pie asked as a license plate landed by her heels. “I never took you for a hoarder, Wolfie.”

“I found lots of discarded items over at the junkyard. Since no one wanted them, I figured I could keep a few, treasures, if you will.” He said, plucking out a large slab of hot pink metal, most likely from a 50s cruiser. “Honestly, I don’t even understand half of the stuff on this planet. None of the cars and vehicles transform?”

“Well… yeah. It’s not like Cybertron or anything like that.” Rainbow Dash just twisted her hand in a circular motion.

“True, true. I suppose Earth technology isn’t as advanced as ours,” Weirdwolf said, as more parts and junk flew back. Some nearly hit the girls now. “Gah! Where in the name of Primus did I leave it?!”

“Wouldn't the word be hell?” Smallfoot lifted a brow at Weirdwolf.

Weirdwolf shrugged, “Well… hmm. We do have the Well Of The Allsparks, but that’s heaven. Maybe we just haven’t seen hell yet.”

“If there is a Transformer Hell, I think we must have all had our Energon ripped out and stuck in it.” Outback grunted and punched the ground so hard that he left a hole in it. “First we lose Wheeljack, then we lose the base, and now all this happens.

“You mustn’t give up hope, Minibot,” Weirdwolf calmly said. “Even in the most dire of situations there’s always a bit of hope. Need I remind you, there is a Combiner with you all?”

“We haven’t combined for a while. And even then, it was only in a dire situation like the fall of Cybertron.” Hotspot replied. “We might not even have control of it anymore.”

“Aw, come on! You guys can do it! You used it to save us from Wheeljack, right?”

“Well, yeah, but--”

“Then you’ve got it, silly!” Pinkie Pie squeaked.

“Yeah. Don’t try to hide from something you can totally do.” Lemon Zest stood back up and smiled again, wrapping her arm around Hotspot’s shoulders. “Nothing to worry about if you can control a giant Combiner, right?”

Hotspot smiled under his mask, patting her head.

“I suppose not. But we’ll have to keep trying.” Injection cracked a small grin as he looked around at the rest of his team. “And hey, we’re not all useless, aren’t we?”

“Yeah…” a few murmured and looked around. Not entirely motivated by the speech, they went back to tending to the Rainbooms and Shadowbolts wounds.

“Ngah! We’re not getting anywhere like this!” Smallfoot groaned and ferociously tapped on her communicator. “Base! Come in! Is anyone there? ANYONE?!”

“THERE IS NO-ONE HERE. THEY ARE ALL DEAD BY MY HAND.” Malware-1’s voice sounded over the communicator as his inky skull and crossbones appeared on the screen. “AS ARE YOU, MY CATTLE.”

“What…?” Smallfoot’s face immediately lifted, as a feel of dread began to bubble in the pit of her chassis.

“THE AUTOBOTS ARE DEAD AND BURIED. THE TOXIC SHADOWBOLTS ARE PROOF OF THAT. AND I AM THE FINAL NAIL IN ALL OF YOUR COFFINS.” He resumed. “TELETRAAN-1 IS GONE. AND I, MALWARE-1, HAVE TAKEN HIS PLACE. THIS AND ALL WORLDS SHALL BELONG TO MY MISTRESSES.”

Smallfoot’s eyes slowly blinked before immediately shutting off the call. “Well, we’re SCREWED,” was the only thing she could say. “The base has been overtaken by some kind of virus left behind by those gooey girls from earlier.”

“... That’s bad.” Sunny flatly said, unsure of how to respond.

“REALLY BAD,” said the Rainbooms in perfect sync with each other.

“No base, no Autobots to talk to, and no way of fighting back against those inky girls. I hate to say it, girls, but I think we’ve actually lost this one.” Rarity’s eyes shifted from Bot to girl one after the other.

“No, no way, absolutely not, I refuse to give up, we’re not goin’ down!” Indigo said, standing up. “You girls were hit at your hardest before, practically all of you taken out and only us to save the day. We still made it out okay, and by the… Autobots as my witnesses, we will not stay down when the enemy is still about!”

“Well, yeah, but what are we gonna do? We don’t have a base, we don’t have any friends to call, and by now, those evil us-es are taking over Canterlot!” Lemon whined. “Indy, as much as I love the enthusiasm, do you think you can back up what you’re saying?”

“Yes, I think I can. Yeah, half of the Autobot army is trapped at base, but you forget… we’ve got a former Decepticon, a Combiner team, strong warriors, a guy with a Mini-con, Cassette Warriors, and all of us! Even having small numbers, I say our chances of winning are pretty dang high.”

“But even then, we don’t have a plan. Do we?” Sunny was the next to speak.

“Maybe not, but we can still come up with something on our own. I don’t know if Sugarcoat is still out there, but if she’s okay, then we need to do something to save her. And not just her, but everyone on the planet! Everyone!”

“And we need to do it fast, if that message I got was any indication…” Smallfoot shuddered as the voice of Malware-1 replayed itself in her mind.

“Exactly. So let's get off our butts and do something!” Indigo cheered. “I dunno about you, but I think it’s time we rally the troops! Get the other bots out here back in action and we’ll send those Toxic Shadowbolts running!”

“Now that’s the Shadowbolt spirit,” Weirdwolf flashed a grin.

“Well, I give her points for effort.” Rainbow Dash stood back up. “But we seriously are going to need a plan. We can’t just run at them without any sort of strategy, right?”

“Which is why we’re gonna put a plan together. And I’ve got a few ideas running in my head…”

“Come on! Why won’t you just tell us?!” Toxic Sugarcoat growled as she ripped a stream of goo out of Sugarcoat’s throat and body. “You’ve lost! Just give yourselves up!”

Sugarcoat coughed heavily, her jaw now free and able to breathe and speak.

“Because I would never give them away! I don’t care if you break me, I’m not gonna give up my friends!”

“Your bravery is nothing more than an extreme resistance, other me. And at this point, I’m honestly just sick and tired of all of it.” Toxic Sugarcoat sent the goo up Sugarcoat’s nose this time, coiling it around her brain. “I never lose my cool, but you’re the exception here!”

“Girl, just let it go! She’s worn down already! Why don’t we just get the other Shadowbolts and call it a day?” Toxic Indigo pulled Toxic Sugarcoat away. “It’s obvious that she’s not gonna tell us. She’s not got the balls to say it now that’s she’s a wimpy little diaper baby clean girl.”

“I don’t like chasing my own tail, Indigo.” Toxic Sugarcoat pulled Toxic Indigo off of her. “And I certainly don’t like it when my investigation leads me to dead ends like this.”

“Just give it up already! Geez!”

“Seriously. In fact… you might want to know this. Her partner isn’t dead,” Toxic Sour growled. “Lemon ran into him, and she and Sunny are searching for him as we speak. No clue where he’s gone.”

Toxic Sugarcoat snarled and growled, her fists clenching. Then she pulled the goo out from Sugarcoat’s breathing holes, letting her sneeze a few times.

“Fine… this will be your lucky day Sugarcoat. I’ll deal with you later. Sour; duct tape.”

Sour threw a roll of duct tape, hitting Toxic Sugarcoat’s head. She snarled, feeling the strike, but just grabbed the roll, tearing a few strips off.

“Certainly can’t have you running your mouth, can we?” She applied the strips on her mouth, effectively gagging her. “Now come on, let's go do a little Autobot hunting, shall we?”

Sugarcoat mumbled under the tape, pleading at her toxic self, tears streaming down her face as she wailed and moaned. But Toxic Sugarcoat only chuckled.

“Oh… miss him, do we? Well perhaps we should make you two reunite…”

She whispered her plan to Indigo and Sour who shared evil grins.

“I like it…” Toxic Sour laughed.

“Well? Let's do it!” Toxic Indigo grinned.

And the three goo girls immediately contorted themselves and darted out of the sewer holding cell, leaving no traces of themselves behind as they rose to the surface world.

Sugarcoat mumbled and she struggled under her bonds, trying to get herself freed. Surely there must have been some way to get herself out, right? As she thrashed and struggled in the chair, trying to get out, she clung on to whatever shred of hope she had left in her heart. She even bounced the chair around and tried to rock it to break free.

Eventually, her moves were all worth it, as she broke free from the gooey restraints around her arms and legs and clambered off of the chair. Ripping the tape from her mouth, she threw it into the water along with the rest of it and ran out of the room as fast as she could.

“Hang on Highbrow, I’m coming…” she whispered to herself, tears still tumbling as she darted out of the prison-like sewers. He was alive. She knew it deep down inside. And one way or another, they were going to reunite.

Marked For Death

“So, what now? Indigo asked. “We can’t get back to Autobot HQ and the Rainbooms were kicked outta Canterlot…”

The Shadowbolts all gathered together at the park to come up with a plan of action. After hearing that their friends had been exiled and that communications with Autobot HQ were still down, they needed to adapt and prepare fast.

“Okay, so now we just gotta wait for Sugarcoat and the others.” Indigo asked.

“There they are now!” Lemon pointed.

Rolling into the park were the other two Shadowbolts, their guardians, along with Bumblebee, Sideswipe, and Hot Shot.

“Thank goodness, you’re okay.” Sugarcoat said, racing up to them and giving them big hugs.

“Sugarcoat!” They all hugged her back.

Sour Sweet jumped out of Smallfoot and she joined in the group hug, feeling a warm welcome from her friends.

“Thank goodness, you’re both okay.” Sunny Flare said.

“I’m just glad you’re all alright, girls.” Sour Sweet rubbed her cheeks against the others. “I thought we’d lost you to those monsters…”

“Let me guess what you mean by monsters… our bad selves?” Indigo asked.

“Yes. Those mean, nasty, sticky, gooey… things tried to kill me and Smallfoot!” Sour wailed. “I don’t wanna see them again!”

Lemon pulled Sour in for a bigger hug than before, rubbing her back.

“Hey, shhh… it’s okay. We’re here, ya teddy bear.” Lemon cooed.

“Thanks, Lemon.” Sour cracked a tiny smile.

“Aw, don’t mention it.” Lemon smiled as she hugged her friend. She glanced over to Smallfoot who sat still, her engine humming in silence. “Is she… okay?”

Sour sighed. “No. She… she found out a secret that I didn’t want her to know and now… I feel like I’ll never get back with her again.” Sour sniffled.

“Wait, what happened? What does she now know?” Lemon asked.

Sour sighed. “That other me told her about my inner desire for us to… take things to the next step.”

Lemon blinked. “Wait, you… oh…” Lemon instantly caught on. “She didn’t take that well huh? Wait, isn’t that just your bad side, she shouldn’t be mad at you over that should she?”

“Lemon, that toxic side is just as every part of me as the one right here. And… it's true. I really do want to take things further but… I’m such a selfish jerk and I didn’t even put the needs of my girlfriend first!”

Sour sobbed again, and Lemon hugged her tightly.

“This relationship is either going to go really good… or really bad.” Indigo said.

“As sad as this is, I think those two should work on their relationship issues later. We have bigger fish to fry.” Sugarcoat stated.

“Agreed. We can resolve some of these issues later.” Highbrow nodded.

Sugarcoat cleared her throat, getting all of their attention.

“Okay, so, we were nearly killed just an hour ago by a toxic Sour Sweet. If rumors are true from what the rest of the girls have told us, that is all of the bad parts of Sour Sweet rolled into one. And if I’m correct, the same forms of all five us are on the loose out there, holding the worst parts of ourselves within.” Sugarcoat addressed.

The Shadowbolts nodded.

“And Sunset’s sounding really beat about this.” Indigo added. “It's not good, especially from the second-in-command of the Autobots.”

“And we can’t get back in touch with Optimus, so that’s even worse.” Bumblebee tried tapping into his comm devices again. “All I keep hearing is this weird static…”

Sugarcoat sighed. “Then it looks like we’re on our own. But, I believe we can do this. If the girls and I could take on the Decepticon army with only a few Autobots around, then I think we can handle these Toxic Bolts. And if Sideswipe and Rainbow Dash could take on a bunch of possessed zombie Transformers, then I think we can still do this.”

“The real question now, though, is what do we do?” Hot Shot asked. “I mean, if we can’t get in touch with Optimus or even get back into Autobot HQ, then we’re really in trouble.”

Sugarcoat shook her head. “We’re not giving up. We’re gonna keep pushing, and we’re gonna beat them. We may not have a good set of numbers, but let's not forget. Sunset and the Rainbooms are in the Everfree woods. And if I’m correct, that’s where Weirdwolf is living and the Protectobots are with them. Weirdwolf, do you have equipment we could use?”

The wolf-con gave one nod. “I believe I do. I have a base of operations in the cave where I live. In fact, since we’re all in danger, I will provide help to you, sister.”

“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go already!” Indigo cried. “The faster we get away from danger, the better, right?”

Sugarcoat nodded. “Agreed. Autobots, let's transform and roll out!”

Everyone resumed vehicle mode, and their engines hummed. Sour was about to get into Smallfoot until she heard a snarl from her.

“Sour. I need some space. Okay? I don’t want to talk to you right now.”

Sour didn’t want to anger her anymore, so she backed away.

“Dearie, you can ride with me.” Sunny Flare called, with an open door in Outback’s vehicular mode.

Sour reluctantly got in and shuffled next to Sunny, tears dropping from her eyes. Sunny frowned, looking at poor Sour. She wish she could have helped, but she didn’t know how to help her.

Highbrow’s blades began to whir, and he took off into the air with Sugarcoat inside. The others pulled out of hiding, and everyone got onto the highway, on their way to the Everfree.

“YOU CANNOT RUN FROM ME, AUTOBOTS…” The corrupted Teletraan boomed across the base as all of the blue lighting quickly turned to blood red. “I SEE AND KNOW EVERYTHING. I CAN STRIKE FATAL BLOWS TO YOU AT WILL. YOU HAVE ALL FAILED.”

Every Autobot in the base was running for fear of their own life, and they were trying their hardest to not die. Several of their troops were getting hurt, and only a few members were killed.

“THERE IS NO NEED TO RESIST. YOUR ALLEGIANCE IS IN TATTERS.” Teletraan struck down a series of Autobots with some high-power laser turrets, shredding them in half.

Optimus held his back against the wall along with Ratchet and Red Alert.

“What’s our status?”

“Everyone is armed and ready to defend themselves.” Red Alert replied.

“Anyone hurt?”

“Staks, Heatwave, and Boulder. Unfortunately, Beamer bit the dust.” Ratchet replied.

“I CAN SEE YOUR FEARS, RED ALERT, OPTIMUS PRIME, AND RATCHET,” the supercomputer mocked. “ALL THAT ANXIETY AND DOUBT… IT’S DELICIOUS…”

“Do what you can, and find the others. We must round everyone together.” Optimus ordered.

“Understood Prime.”

On Cybertron…

Some of Starscream’s warriors were busy away on some monitors when a peculiar transmission flickered on the screen.

“Starscream?”

Starscream entered the room. “What is it, Twin Spin?”

“We’re receiving a strange message from Earth. I can’t make it out who it is.”

“Put it through.” Starscream tipped his hand.

The screen flickered to life, revealing the logo of the corrupted Teletraan-1 on it.

“DECEPTICONS,” it said. “I AM MALWARE-1. FORMERLY TELETRAAN-1 OF AUTOBOT HQ.”

The Decepticons standing had confused looks.

“Um… what?” Twin Spin cocked his head.

“Why would an Autobot Teletraan want to communicate with us?” Starscream tilted his head. “Did they capture one of our warriors?”

“Negative. All Decepticons are within the vicinity, Overlord Starscream,” Soundwave said in his modular.

Starscream was puzzled. Clearing his throat, he looked at the monitor. “Very well then, Malware-1. Speak. What are your intentions?”

“I NOW CONTROL AUTOBOT HQ AND AM EXTERMINATING A NUMBER OF THOSE INSIDIOUS MACHINES,” Malware-1 said. “OPTIMUS PRIME AND THE OTHERS ARE RUNNING LIKE HEADLESS CHICKENS.”

Starscream nodded. “Where’s your proof?”

The screen changed, to show a good chunk of the Rescue Bots including the Guardian Beamer being blasted through the chest, erasing their energy sources. The base’s defensive systems had turned against the bots and none of the guns seemed to stop firing.

“Is this for real?” Starscream cocked an evil grin. “Because if it is, nobody pinch me!”

“Wait, hold on. Why are you telling us this?” Twin Spin asked.

“BECAUSE THE AUTOBOTS ARE COWARDLY. WEAK. THEY HIDE WITHIN AUTOBOT HQ INSTEAD OF TAKE THE FIGHT DIRECTLY TO YOU.” Malware-1 flickered back to his logo. “I AM EXTERMINATING EVERYONE INSIDE THE BASE. LEAVING THE ONES OUTSIDE OF HQ AS EASY PICKINGS FOR YOU AND YOUR SUBJECTS.”

Starscream scratched his chin. “I see… and where might we find this Autobot base? Should you not succeed in killing them all?”

“TRANSMITTING AUTOBOT BASE HQ CO-ORDINATES NOW.” The screen showed a lot of source code before pinpointing it on a holographic projection of Earth. “WE ARE IN THE VICINITY OF THE MOJAVE DESERT IN NEVADA”

Twin Spin and Starscream shared malicious smirks.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Twin Spin asked.

“Yes, Twin Spin. I am liking our odds… We’ll depart for Earth in 12 Earth hours.” Starscream said to the computer.

“GOOD. I WILL CONTINUE TO TORTURE AND DECIMATE ANY REMAINING BOTS IN THE PROCESS,” he said. “MALWARE-1 OUT.” And the screen changed back to the Decepticon Logo.

Starscream let out a little chuckle. “This day has just gotten better. Twin Spin, Soundwave. Contact all of our Decepticon forces. Trypticon, the Combiners, multi-changers, Renegades, Seekers, EVERYONE! We have a base to raid!”

“Yes, Overlord Megatron.” They both nodded and ran off.

While Twin Spin ran ahead, two cassettes popped out of Soundwave’s chest. They were of course, Laserbeak and Rumble, his surveillance cassettes.

“Have you copied the data from the co-ordinates?” Soundwave asked Rumble and Laserbeak.

“We got them all on tape.” Rumble chuckled.

“Excellent.” He opened his chest up. “Return. And wait for further instruction.”

Starscream smirked to Soundwave as his cassettes flew back into him. “Soundwave, I want you to remember this day. This will be the day I prove to the Decepticon empire why I am a better ruler than Megatron. Megatron couldn’t find the base… but now we are in possession of their coordinates under my command…”

“Truly, there is no greater leader than you, Overlord Starscream,” lied Soundwave, but in a way that Starscream wouldn’t notice.

Starscream looked outside into Cybertron’s space.

“Enjoy your final moments, Prime. Because we will come for you, and you will die by my hands…” Starscream chuckled.

“All Decepticons. Report in,” Soundwave spoke through his comms device, sending the message all throughout Decepticon HQ and to the cons on Earth. “Autobot Headquarters has been located. Commence Operation: Landslide.”

Author's Note

Twist!